The Dragon and the Bear: An Alternate Drakaverse
by Matt Quinn
Summary: The Great War is drawing to a close and the brutal slaving empire the Domination of the Draka is devouring the Ottoman Empire and planning to expand yet further. But Russian General Lavr Kornilov has something to say about that...
1. The Choice That Changed Everything

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Choice That Changed Everything…**

By Matthew W. Quinn

I know I said I'd write no more fan-fiction, but this dates back to before that promise. I posted it on a limited-access forum and now I'm putting it out here for all to see. Everything pertaining to the Draka belongs to S.M. Stirling and Baen Books…

_"Somehow, out of nowhere, the Russians turned from being the most backward nation in Europe to becoming the nation that would actually take on the Domination in an actual war - and win. No-one knows to this day how the Russians pulled it off." _

-Luis Juaperon, The History of the 20th Century.

General Lavr Kornilov sat in his headquarters, pondering what to do. The Tsar had fallen and the inept Provisional Government strode from disaster to disaster, neither winning battles nor responding to German peace feelers. He suspected the Bolsheviks, those German spies, were involved. They and their damnable Soviets, spreading their tentacles and their godless creed everywhere...

Meanwhile, good Russian boys died by the thousands, the Hun advanced closer to Petrograd, and far to the south, the abominable Domination of the Draka reached out its claws for Constantinople, the great prize the Tsars had sought for centuries. Most of the Ottoman Empire had gone under the Yoke and the Draka were already making inroads into Persia, creeping perilously close to the Empire's frontier. They were still on the same side as the Russians...for now. The Bolshevik takeover would give them the perfect excuse to move northeward from there into the heart of Turkestan, the home of his mother's people. He knew full well what would happen then...

His fist clenched. The Draka would violate the sacred soil of Mother Russia over his dead body...

**Sept. 9th, 1917 AD**-Kornilov's troops occupy St. Petersburg, ostensibly to preserve the Provisional Government against a Bolshevik coup. Leon Trotsky and other Bolsheviks imprisoned after the July unrest are shot and the Soviets are dispersed by force. Kerensky is enraged, but is quickly convinced to go along with it-after all, Kornilov has communiques from the capital suggesting that the Provisional Government was in danger.

Over the next few weeks, Kornilov's men hunted down and killed or imprisoned the escaped Bolsheviks and their supporters, killing thousands. In the meantime, Kornilov, hoping to ensure the loyalty of the Central Asian population in the face of possible nationalistic blandishments by the Turks, pushed Kerensky to grant the Central Asian populace all the rights and privileges of Russian citizenship, restored grazing lands taken by the government, and punished some officials who committed atrocities during the repression of a revolt there in 1916. In doing so, he made common cause with the Jadid reformers. Though this caused grumbling in the ranks of the Cossacks who supported Kornilov, Kerensky also abolished the remaining anti-Semitic legislation.

Meanwhile, Kornilov continued his efforts to restore the Russian army, whose discipline had weakened and which had taken severe damage in the recent years. This work, though difficult and often bloody, worked. He also pushed Kerensky to push for more food aid from the other Allied powers, citing the role food riots had played in the fall of the Tsar. Thanks to the entry of the United States, more and more aid came to Russia.

Using special shock formations, Kornilov retook Riga from the Germans, buying the Empire breathing space. By early 1918, Kornilov felt the army was ready for another great offensive. Under the command of himself and his deputy General Anton Denikin, the Russian army, stiffened with masses of new recruits, poured westward. The Germans were forced back; the Austro-Hungarians disintegrated.

Caught between the American-augmented Western hammer and the Russian anvil, the Central Powers disintegrated. Though Russia took back all occupied territory and even took Austrian Galicia and territory in Prussia and Silesia, the ultimate prize-Constantinople-fell to the Domination of the Draka. The Draka even managed to secure a large part of Bulgaria before Romanian troops, spurred on by the Russians, moved into occupy the rest. Huge numbers of refugees brought forth tales of horror-rape, impalement, and slavery.

Though many among the Allied powers thought this behavior was the exception rather than the rule, Kornilov and Kerensky knew differently. The Draka were no longer white supremacists-thanks to the devil-woman Elvira Naldorssen, they were _Draka_ supremacists, and they would see all humanity in chains.

Russia would have to be prepared for when the Dragon decided to take its next bite...


	2. Reform, Retribution,and Hitler

**The Dragon and the Bear: Reform, Retribution, and the Coming of Hitler**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Over the next few years, Kerensky transformed Russia into a republic, with Kornilov there to ensure he did not get too radical. Due to the problems his attempt to create "the most democratic army in the world" caused in the later phases of the war, he did not need much "guidance."

The first elections to the new, more powerful Duma took place in 1920. The Cadets, Socialist Revolutionaries, and even the Mensheviks were major parties while the Bolsheviks, due to their propensity for treason and sedition, remained outlawed. The former Tsar was allowed to live quietly outside St. Petersburg, and some noticed that he seemed happier as a private citizen than as a monarch. Alexandra still fumed about the loss of their monarchical privileges, but did little more.

As far as the economy was concerned, what resulted was an unusual hybrid of Kornilov's capitalism and Kerensky's socialism. Unions, particularly those that had not connived with the outlawed Bolsheviks, were respected, while foreign investment was encouraged. However, these foreigners were charged a surtax for the privilege of operating in Holy Russia, monies that were spent on the heavy industrial projects and increased rail network that would be needed for the Russian army. The Republic also took a page from the Draka themselves and recruited foreign military experts with promises of wealth and freedom to do research.

To increase the inflow of foreign money, Kornilov pushed the Duma to fall back on Russia's time-honored sales of grain to the West, using the expedient of an in-kind tax to do so. Though the peasants grumbled and voted for the anarchist Nestor Makhno's faction in the Duma, the government's policy of paying Bulgarian refugees from regions conquered by the Domination to settle in the agricultural areas of the Russian Empire ensured that the villagers knew just who was looking northward with hungry eyes.

Meanwhile, the Domination unleashed its blooded army on the Middle East. With Anatolia, Constantinople, and a suitable Bulgarian buffer under control, the Domination crushed the nascent Syrian state that had sprung up in territories the Draka armies had bypassed during the march north into Asia Minor or their campaigns along the northern arc of the Persian Gulf. The Draka armies moved southward along the coasts, seizing control of the Muslim holy cities and eliminating ports where armaments could be imported and from which the populace could flee. Meanwhile, the Draka followed up on their wartime incursions into Persia with a full invasion in 1922.

The battered survivors of the disorganized Persian military fled eastward into Afghanistan as their forebears did before Alexander, and like Alexander, the Draka followed. The Draka had proclaimed the province of Bactria in 1929, but at a cost of enormous numbers of Janissaries, Citizen troops, and most savagely, the population of Afghanistan itself. Fifty-five percent of the population died, with many more fleeing into western China or the southern reaches of the Russian Empire.

The Draka attempted to pursue and although the dysfunctional Taiping dynasty was unable to stop their periodic intrusions, the Russian Republic's swift and brutal response to a Draka incursion in 1924 that saw two Russian citizens impaled ensured the Snakes respected their side of the line. The provision of German and Austrian weapons to anti-Draka rebels in Afghanistan and Persia kept the Snakes busy. TheDraka attempted to stir up anti-Russian feeling in response, but given their odious behavior just a few miles to the South, they found few takers.

To Russia's west, the Weimar Republic suffered much of the same havoc the Provisional Government did, only with a much less happy ending. The stock market crash of 1929 brought about the rise of Adolph Hitler, who preached a stab-in-the-back message denouncing Jews and leftists and promising to reclaim territory taken from Germany at Versailles. His message also bore the taint of Snake-the Germanic peoples of Europe should do unto the Slavic savages what the Draka had done to the uncivilized Africans and Arabs. Though his ally Mussolini's bid to support another fascist regime in Spain had backfired, leading to the Republic dominated by various extreme leftists, Hitler viewed the isolated Iberian state as of little consequence to his ultimate plan.

The Depression hurt Russia, but its various state-backed infrastructure and military programs provided the citizenry with jobs, as did the expanded Russian army. Russia's favoritism towards military science bore fruit, with the AK-47 and T-34 appearing in Russian service in the mid-1930s. A young Russian officer named Mikhail Tukhachevsky rose to prominence with a theory of "deep operations" that was widely popular in Europe, especially in Germany.

The French, ever-alert for trouble from Germany, revitalized the flagging Little Entente in the Balkans when the Germans absorbed Austria in 1938. Hitler's attempt to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia was rebuffed that same year. The Nazi dictator stewed and plotted his revenge, solidifying his alliance with the revanchist regimes in Hungary, Italy, and Japan.

Meanwhile, the Domination looked northward. Italy was ruled by a fool and Spain unstable, riven by the many bizarre left-wing factions that dominated its government and a populace stewing with resentment against the Republic for its anticlericalism. And if the Domination's borders could be extended further north than that, so much the better. Even with the conquests of Bulgaria, the Arab lands, Persia, and Afghanistan, white slaves were still an expensive commodity...

In 1939, Hitler made new demands on Czechoslovakia. France and this time Britain backed the little democracy. But this time, Hitler declared war...


	3. The Dawn of the Eurasian War

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Dawn of the Eurasian War**

By Matthew W. Quinn

The Nazis began their attack on Czechoslovakia with a series of air drops to seize the Sudetenland passes and other strategic sites in the Sudetenland, followed by armored spearheads emerging from former Austria. This enables them to severely damage the forward-deployed Czechoslovak army, which was expecting a more traditional attempt to force the passes.

In Castle Tarleton, the Draka generals take note of this strategy.

In the meantime, Hungary attacks Czechoslovakia from the east and south, intent on reclaiming all of the Crownlands of St. Stephen. Italy attacks Yugoslavia, to extremely mixed results. Luftwaffe raids as far as Ploesti, attacking the Little Entente's oil supplies.

In the Far East, revolts break out against the last emperor of the Taiping, who combines ineptitude with excessive zeal in attempting to Christianize China. The Japanese, entrenched in the Manchurian territory they had occupied during the anti-Taiping "Boxer" revolt at the end of the 19th Century, begin moving southward, to the great aggravation of the United States.

The Yugoslavs begin forcing the Italians back. German units diverted from the siege of Prague to prevent full Italian defeat and Yugoslav reinforcement of Czechoslovakia. Hungary completes occupation of Slovakia and begins shifting forces west to deal with probes from the Romanians out of Transylvania.

The French move into the Saar, occupying some territory and skirmishing with German forces. Little effect had on the German operations to the east and south.

Meanwhile, the Domination begins massing Citizen and Janissary forces in northern Africa, citing the dangers of Communist subversion from Spain. The Security Directorate keeps a close watch on the Janissary armies in the area for this reason.

By late 1939, Czechoslovakia has been fully occupied, with the Germans annexing the Czech half and the Hungarians claiming the Slovak half. Many refugees stream into Russian territory. Russian forces are deployed into Poland and the Ukraine to protect the country's borders, but Russia does not declare war despite sizable support among the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. Kornilov, even stronger due to the retirement of Kerensky and his replacement by lesser men, thinks Russia still needs more time, especially with the possibility of an attack from the southeast from the Domination.

The Germans now turn their full attention to Yugoslavia, dismembering it in less than month. Italy gains much territory in the northwest and a puppet ally, Ustashe-dominated Croatia. Serbia is under German occupation while Bulgaria seeks to compensate for the loss of much southeastern territory to the Draka by grabbing Macedonia.

The Romanians, isolated from the Anglo-French alliance, bereft of local support, and with the Domination at their backs, sue the Axis for peace. Hitler demands the cession of Transylvania to Hungary and oil from Ploesti to fuel the coming offensive, but promises Bessarabia as the spoils of a later attack on Russia.

1940 sees the British attempt to preemptively secure Norway and the Germans surge north through Denmark. At the cost of much of their navy, the Germans eject the British from Scandinavia.

The Germans follow up their Scandinavian victories with a two-pronged invasion of France-one prong through the Low Countries and the other through the Ardennes. The Germans have it tougher than in our world due to the fact their "seize strong-points in advance via paratrooper" strategy is known. However, the Germans eventually force their way through the Ardennes and cut off the Ango-French force in the north. Dunkirk happens per OTL.

With the British ejected from the Continent and the French on the ropes, the Draka use the pretext of some Janissaries being caught with Communist literature (and being executed as a result) to launch an invasion of Spain. The Draka crush the disorganized Spanish forces in the south, following the Guadalquivir north and consuming the Andalusian Plain. The Portuguese dictator Salazar, realizing he's next if Spain falls, makes common cause with his left-wing enemies and intervenes in an attempt to outflank the Draka armies occupying southeastern Spain.

Although the bulk of the Draka war effort is focused on the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Draka seize the Balearic Islands and use those as a base to land in the eastern parts of Spain. The coastal belt from Cartagena to Barcelona falls quickly, although Barcelona's well-organized anarchists — something the Draka commanders found somewhat shocking — exact a fearful toll from the Janissaries and Citizen troops before they go down. The Draka advance up the Ebro as far as Zaragoza before they are checked.

Meanwhile, the Draka air forces have swept the Spanish and Portuguese planes from the sky and kept Madrid and Lisbon under constant aerial bombardment. Eventually, a lucky bomb hit wipes out the Spanish Republic's top leadership, leading to a splintering of the Spanish war effort.

The Germans finish off France by August of 1940, although the French scored some late victories, especially against the Italian latecomers. The Draka take somewhat longer with Spain and Portugal due to the terrain, with Draka troops eventually meeting German and Italian ones in the passes of the Pyrenees and destroying the last Spanish and Portuguese armies between them. The Italians take particular delight due to the defeat of their Nationalist puppets some years prior.

By the time 1941 dawns, the German Luftwaffe are harrying Britain and the Draka are gruesomely pacifying Iberia, dividing it into five provinces in the manner of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. All works of left-wing literature Draka troops can find are burned although, ominously, many Janissaries read them first.

Then Italy invades Greece and finds that, like with Yugoslavia before, it has bitten off more than it can chew...


	4. Italian Follies

**The Dragon and the Bear: Italian Follies**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Mussolini, jealous of Hitler's conquests and seeking to protect Italy's interests in the Balkans, demands territorial concessions from Greece in early 1941. The Greeks tell him off and the Italians launch an invasion from Albania, which they occupied while everyone was distracted by the German-Hungarian dismemberment of Czechoslovakia.

The Italians do better than in OTL because they've learned from mistakes in Yugoslavia, but by May 1941, the Greeks have pushed the Italians out and occupied much of Albania. Mussolini appeals to Hitler for help. Meanwhile, the British take Crete, Lemnos, and other Mediterranean islands for use as bomber bases to attack Axis targets in southern Europe.

Hitler is building up for the planned invasion of the Russian Republic, but recognizes the honor of the Axis alliance is at stake and that the British are taking advantage. Soldiers massing in eastern Germany and Hungary, as well as garrison units from occupied regions of Serbia, are dispatched south. Seeing the coming storm, the Greek government permits Commonwealth forces to assist in the defense of Greece.

In mid-May, the Germans strike southward. The Commonwealth and Greek forces fight doggedly, but the Greeks' refusal to cede even the smallest amount of territory—leading to much of their army cut off in Albania-and the greater German speed and coordination mean a German victory by mid-June.

Hitler is furious. Although he has won another victory against Britain, the Italians have jeopardized his primary goal-the invasion and conquest of European Russia as lebensraum for the Aryan Race. The invasion will have to be postponed and that means reaching Petrograd and Moscow in a single gigantic campaign is no longer possible due to the oncoming Russian winter.

His anger overriding his common sense, he approaches the Domination to punish the errant Italians. Hitler and the representative of Archon Edwina Palme strike a bargain-the Draka will invade Sicily and southern Italy, forcing Mussolini to send his armies south. Then the Nazis will move southward as the country's ostensible ally/rescuer, removing Mussolini from power in the process.

In return, the Draka will be granted Sicily and whatever they can grab in southern Italy. Hitler, in his "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" level of military strategy, thinks that having Draka troops deployed this far forward is to his advantage, not theirs-the Draka can be isolated and destroyed at his will. Furthermore, his planned Italo-Draka war will allow the Germans more knowledge about Draka military tactics and the greater possibility of recovering Draka military equipment, among the best in the world.

The Draka, on the other hand, view Sicily and southern Italy as a useful springboard for further operations in Europe and are confident in their ability to keep Sicily and southern Italy supplied from North Africa in the event of treachery by Hitler.

So, the secret Palermo Accord is signed in June 1941. Hitler still plans to invade the Russian Republic in July or August-he doesn't think it will require much in the way of troops or time to chasten his inept ally.

The Draka attack on Italy begins on June 22nd, 1941 with a gigantic 12,000-paratrooper drop on Sicily, whose participants included Sofie Nixon and Eric von Shrakenberg. The Italians are taken by surprise and hammered. Airplanes and airships launched from North Africa harry Italy, focusing their efforts on the Italian fleet and air force. Transports carrying waves of Janissaries set off from North Africa.

Unfortunately for the Draka, not every Italian force was taken by surprise and destroyed. Francesco Scotti, one of the higher level Italian officers, survived the assault and reorganized the scattered, demoralized Italian forces. He picks off several Draka landing parties that had not had time to fortify themselves, driving others into Palermo, seized during the opening assault. Scotti encircles the city and prepares to storm it.

Then the Janissaries arrive. They fight through Scotti's army, destroying it at a terrible cost, and relieve Palermo. Scotti himself is killed in battle. Hunting down and exterminating the last Italian units-as well as local rebels who spring up after the Draka start indulging in their usual proclivities-takes around a month.

Meanwhile, Mussolini begs Hitler for aid. Hitler dispatches German units through the Alpine passes with orders to garrison Italian cities. A special SS unit is ostensibly ordered to serve as Mussolini's bodyguard but is given secret orders to kill him when the time is right.

In early July, the Draka make the short crossing from Sicily to Calabria. The Italian army has dug in to meet them with the Pollino Mountains at their back. The Draka overrun them in mere days, advancing northward towards Basilicata.

Meanwhile, the German armies reach Rome, garrisoning everything significant in Italy along the way. Other German armies move on ahead, occupying everything as far south as Molise. Small skirmishes break out between the advancing Germans and the advancing Draka, although both sides' high command keeps them under control.

The two armies meet at the southern border of the Molise region and there is no combat. Mussolini throws a fit and is killed in mid-rant by his "bodyguard." At the same time, German troops engage in something resembling the Night of the Long Knives, killing all the Mussolini loyalists they can find. Minor skirmishes occur with Italian troops that had not yet been sent to fight the Draka, but the Italians are quickly brought to heel.

By early August, the Draka have annexed Calabria, Basilicata, Apulia, and Campania as the new province of Lucania. The poverty and degradation there horrifies von Shrakenberg., who takes note of it in his journal. Though he dislikes the slave system, he thinks at least the Draka will improve the southern Italy and manage the population better than its indigenous government had.

The Russians are taking note of all that's happened, in particular the strategic use of paratroopers and Hitler's willingness to backstab his allies and make deals with the Draka. More Russian units are deployed in Poland, the Baltic coastline, and Finland as well as the heavily-garrisoned southern frontier in preparation for what could easily be a joint offensive by the two Master Races...


	5. Operation Barbarossa

**The Dragon and the Bear: Operation Barbarossa**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Hitler, seeing the alliance with the Draka as useful for something other than chastening Mussolini, suggests the Draka conduct some ominous military maneuvers along their common border with the Russians. This will draw away soldiers defending the western border, enabling the Germans to drive straight towards Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Crimea.

Archon Palme agrees, for her own reasons. The Germans will penetrate deeply in their opening attack if the western forces are drawn down and the Russians may panic and strip their southern frontier bare to defend against the Germans. If the Draka so choose, they can make a gigantic territory grab for relatively little cost.

So the Draka increase their forces along the heavily-defended border of the Russian Republic. The Russians send more forces to the region, but they primarily send new conscripts and the soldiers guarding the frontier against the Japanese, keeping the western frontiers heavily defended. Kornilov, now rather old but still acting as the power behind the throne, recognizes this as a diversionary effort.

In mid-August, Hitler's patience runs out. Operation Barbarossa, in which 4.5 million troops raised from Germany, its allied regimes, and the various puppet states invade the Russian Republic.

Between the approaching winter and the different geopolitical situation, the overall invasion axes are different than in our world.

1. Since the Black Sea is bottled up by the allied Domination, Crimea can be ignored for the moment. Instead, Army Group South will head for the Caucasus and its oil fields, something that the Keresnky-Kornilov policy has been focusing on developing.

2. Since St. Petersburg is the Russian capital, Army Group North is the largest and the most heavily armed.

3. Army Group Center heads for the Russian industrial heartland centered around Moscow.

Though the Russian troops are deployed forward as a deterrent, Tukhachevsky, serving as the primary field commander due to Denikin and Kornilov's ages, recognizes that the Germans will try to encircle and destroy said units. He pulls back as much as he can, leaving slower and smaller units to be encircled and destroyed, in order to mass his forces for a counterattack. The Russian Air Force provides cover for the retreats in some of the largest aerial battles in human history. The strategy is overall a success, although there are enormous losses in terms of both manpower and equipment.

In the north, the great battle would be fought near Riga, the Germans' high-water mark during the last war. The Russians allow the leading German elements to cross the Dzvina River and then, using air units kept in reserve, destroy all of the bridges in a coordinated aerial assault. The armor-heavy forward elements are then destroyed in detail separate from their infantry-heavy follow-up units. In a stroke, Army Group North loses a lot of its armor. German bridging units make a heroic effort to re-bridge the river, although attacks by Russian aircraft and ships largely thwarted their efforts. The Russians, not expecting so much success, lacked sufficient bridging units of their own and had taken large losses in aircraft during the bridge-busting mission. Consequently were not able to fully take advantage of Army Group North's weakness.

Massive tank battles occurred throughout White Russia as the German and Russian armies attempted to outmaneuver and encircle each other. The great masses of T-34s showed their worth here, particularly in the Pripet Marshes where they could maneuver much better than the Germans. The German advance was checked outside Minsk, well short of the goal of Smolensk and the road to Moscow.

In the south, the German advance was ultimately checked at Uman, where they attempted to conduct a massive encirclement of the Russians, only to be encircled themselves. The Germans were ultimately able to batter their way free and retreat back across the Bug River.

By the end of October, the front had stabilized in a line stretching from just south of Riga down through just west of Minsk to the upper reaches of the Bug River. Hitler proclaims this a victory, since German territory lost in the first war has been recovered, as has Romanian-heavy territories that had been under the Russian sway since the wars against the Ottomans.

In the wake of the oncoming German armies came extermination squads, which killed Jews and the upper echelons of Slavic society (priests, doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc) by the hundreds of thousands. This gratuitous massacre left even the Draka (who supplied observers) shaken-it wasted resources needed for the actual battle, wasted the potential labor provided by the murdered, and is simply horrid and repulsive even by their low standards.

The Draka take note that when the time comes for the war against the Nazis, the Jews will make enthusiastic collaborators, as will the various Slavic ethnicities. Not that the Draka would have allowed the upper echelons of Slavic society to continue to exist anyway.

Both the Russians and the Germans gear up for a second wave of battles they hope to get in before the winter arrives. The German generals suggest an all-or-nothing assault on the capital, but Hitler insists on attacking the Soviet industrial centers in Ukraine and Moscow and securing as much of the "Black Earth Zone" as possible to deny the Russians food.

Meanwhile, the Russians are intent on the destruction of Army Group North, which is the most dangerous threat due to its proximity to the capital. Army Group Center, which has been on the receiving end of attacks by the T-34s, will (hopefully) be finished off. However, Army Group South remains a serious threat to the Ukraine and forces will have to deal with that.

With the utmost reluctance, Kornilov removes some experienced troops from the Draka frontier, replacing them with larger numbers of new conscripts.

The Draka watch their two greatest potential enemies hammering at each other and smile. Their armies all along their northern border are swelled with new troops and plans are hatched to deal with whoever weakens first...


	6. The War Machines and the Rising Sun

**The War Machines and the Rising Sun…**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As both the Third Reich and the Russian Republic prepare for the next round of battles, both sides prepare to unleash their newest technologies.

The Russians had reliable T-34s since the 1930s and had the time to build great masses of them. However, this did not mean they had merely rested on their heels. Prototypes of a more advanced design-the T-55-had been built before the German assault on the Little Entente. The coming war had given them extra incentive to work the bugs out and prepare the first production batch, but the first wave of T-55s had not arrived at the front until after the conclusions of the first battles, battles so gigantic and casualty-intensive they'd shocked both sides into stopping, for the moment.

The Russians also upped production of the Shturmovik, the reliable old tank-killer. They also studied reports of a Draka ground-attack aircraft called a Rhino, which seemed like a tougher version of the Shturmovik. In particular, they took note of the jellied gasoline the Rhinos deployed in anti-personnel bombs. Russian technicians experimented with attack helicopters-the reconnaissance birds proved useful during the German invasion, but a hovering version of the Shturmovik would be very nice.

Meanwhile, the Germans prepared to unleash weapons of their own. In this, they were aided by official technical aid from the Domination (not as much as Hitler wanted, but still), as well as possession of several salvaged Draka tanks and aircraft from Spain and southern Italy. The Panzers IV and V would be unleashed upon the Russians soon, with the heavy Tiger and King Tigers being tested. Input from theDraka designs fixed many of the mechanical problems the new designs had, saving time and ultimately lives.

Draka tanks also used uranium penetrators, which would be impractical for the Germans to use en masse due to the Germans' lack of indigenous supplies. The Draka would sell the Germans uranium of course, but at a high price. Hitler orders that only the most elite German formations be equipped with them.

The Russians, the Germans, the United States, the British, and the Draka also began research into the creation of nuclear weapons. The US, where most of the German Jewish scientists had fled (Russia, though democratic, still brought up bad memories of Cossacks) had the lead, while the British worked in concert with the Americans. The Germans were hamstrung by bizarre Nazi pseudoscientific theories, a shortage of necessary materials, and scientists reluctant to give Hitler such a powerful device. The Russians, possessed of large supplies of uranium and technical data forwarded to them by Anglo-American scientists authorized to do so, also set to work. The Draka faced a shortage of scientific talent due to its repressive policies, but they also had superior military tech in general and a vast resource base (for materials). Unlike the British and Russians, they were untouched by the war.

Those who got the bomb first would be mighty indeed...

Meanwhile, the Japanese advance continued southward. The Taiping Emperor and his court were forced to flee Peking by the combination of the Japanese advance and popular rebellion. The Emperor, his court, and the military units guarding them were ambushed by insurgents as they made their way towards more loyal areas in southern China. After a day and night of battles, the Imperial family and their top officials were dead. The rebels lacked a leader and now the loyalists didn't have one either, leaving no one to establish a united front against the Japanese.

However, two different men would soon see an end to that. One, a prominent Taiping general named Chiang Kai-Shek, and the other, a young librarian and student named Mao Zedong.

In addition to advancing China, the Japanese also extorted control of Indochina from Vichy France and made threatening moves toward the Dutch East Indies, where the Dutch government-in-exile had established itself. This further annoyed the United States, which imposed an embargo of oil and scrap metal.

The Japanese, realizing they did not have sufficient oil to last the remainder of the year, began plotting to take it by force...

November began with a massively reinforced Army Group South crossing the Bug once again. The targets were Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, as well as the great industrial center of Krivoy Rog.

Kiev was a target for obvious reasons, while Krivoy Rog would give the Germans control over much of the Kryvorizkyi Iron Ore Basin, a major center of the Russian steel industry and one of the richest iron deposits in Europe. Furthermore, Hitler hoped that the Russians would divert much of their strength from other areas to defend the Ukraine.

The Russian army met the oncoming German offensive at Zhytomyr in the north and once more at Uman in the south. Though both battles were hard-fought, the Germans triumphed at both thanks to their new, Domination-augmented hardware. Though bloodied, the two branches of Army Group South headed for their respective targets.

The Russians had not been idle. In an assault commanded by Tukachevsky in person, they struck Army Group North, which was still short on armor despite reinforcements with the new German tanks.. The Shturmoviks, equipped with napalm in the Draka fashion, devastated the infantry-heavy formations, burning German soldiers alive by the tens of thousands. The Germans were forced back from their positions just below Riga.

Hitler, doing something that would soon become rather characteristic of him, gave a "no retreat" order. The Germans were to hold the rail line from Liepaja through Daugavpils rather than fall back to the rivers and attempt to do unto the Russians what the Russians had done unto them south of Riga. Slowly but surely, the Russians began grinding Army Group North underfoot in a series of battles alongside the Baltic.

Both sides' Baltic fleets participated, with the Germans providing fire support for the battles that drew near the coast and the Russians' attempting to interfere. The series of fleet actions concomitant with the land battle saw the use of Russian torpedo bombers launched from the land in an antiship role. They sank several German ships, albeit at a severe cost from antiaircraft fire from the ships and the shore.

Eventually, even Hitler saw reason and allowed the Germans to retreat south. Several detachments were enveloped and destroyed as they did so. The Baltic lines stabilized on the Nemen-Nemunas-Neris line, with Vilnius remaining in German hands.

Though Hitler claimed credit for doing what his generals had beseeched him to do-trade space for time-this tardy move cost many German soldiers their lives and made him enemies in the officer corps, including a young logistics officer named Klaus von Stauffenberg. The diversion of effort from the front to massacre Slavic intelligentsia and Jews did not help.

As Army Group North got hammered, Army Group Center received new orders. Rather than continuing their offensive towards Minsk, they were to turn north in an attempt to squash the Russian forces between themselves and Army Group North. This left a large gap between the two northern Army Groups and Army Group South, but Hitler believed the northern Russian army could be destroyed and Army Group Center released to continue the advance towards Moscow.

Meanwhile, the naval forces in Crimea that Hitler ignored begin moving upriver towards Kiev. Various creative means are found to get the ships through shallow parts of the river. When the Germans attack the city, they'll be on the receiving end of massive amounts of naval fire support they did not expect.


	7. The Sun Rises and the Hammer Falls

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Sun Rises and the Hammer Falls**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Meanwhile, the Japanese began preparing for a two-pronged effort against the Americans in the Pacific, to ensure their grab for the oil resources of the Dutch East Indies went unhindered. There would be two simultaneous air-naval attacks on the Phillippines and on Pearl Harbor, with the goal of destroying the US Pacific Fleet in its entirety and depriving the US of a base it could use to choke off the Japanese thrust into Southeast Asia. The goal would be to secure all of Japan's objectives as quickly as possible and then present the US with a fait accompli. Yamamoto, the chief Japanese commander, estimates that the US will not be able to respond for six months. After that, unless the Japanese can negotiate from a position of strength, the "sleeping giant" will rip the Empire of the Rising Sun to bits.

Under total radio silence, a great Japanese armada steams westward. On December 7th, they attack Pearl Harbor. As the surprised American fleet is ripped asunder by torpedo bombers and hundreds of American planes are destroyed on the ground, the Japanese do the same to American forces in the Phillippines.

FDR asks Congress for a declaration of war on the Japanese, which he gets. Hitler, hoping to get a reciprocal effort by the Japanese against the Russians, declares war on the United States. The US declares war on the Germans as well.

This news vexes the Draka. They know the United States, whose industrial power equals theirs and dwarfs everyone else's, will have plenty of capacity to spare for Europe. If the British and the exiled remnants of their continental allies are able to return to the continent with American aid, this means their ability to expand beyond their Spanish and southern Italian bases will be sorely limited. They begin preparing a "doomsday plan" to aid the Japanese should a second front appear likely.

Still, the Draka watch as the Japanese sweep their "Southern Resource Area" clear of the Allied forces within weeks, destroying the last major Allied naval force at the Battle of the Java Sea and pocketing American troops at Bataan and Corregidor. The final fall of the Phillippines and the hideous abuses the Japanese subject the "damnyanks" to fill Draka hearts with glee. The Doolittle Raid, however, is an unwelcome surprise.

As the Japanese rampage across the Pacific, the twin battles of Kiev and Krivoy Rog begin in early 1942. Unlike our history, Hitler did not expect victory before winter, so they're better equipped for the cold this time. Both cities had become major industrial centers thanks to the Kornilov-Kerensky economic program, so they were heavily defended and the defenders had plenty of materiel.

Including, in the case of Kiev, something the Germans did not expect-much of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Kornilov had realized that the fleet would be useless due to the Draka controlling the Dardanelles for anything except spoiling raids on German-controlled Romania, so almost as soon as the German tanks crossed the border, he ordered the fleet up the river to defend the likely target of Kiev.

Unfortunately, the _Zaporozhia_ and other natural obstacles that forced the Vikings to move their ships overland during parts of the long journey from Scandinavia to Constantinople during the Dark Ages were even bigger problems for deeper-draft modern warships. Taking a page from the Ottoman sultans, Kornilov ordered the ships to be ported overland, using massive numbers of steam-trucks and the like to pull them. As the German armies rolled eastward, the ships rolled north. Kornilov ordered the Russian Air Force to keep the Luftwaffe far away, so the Germans first became aware of the presence of the Black Sea Fleet when the enormous array of naval guns opened fire on their advancing spearheads.

The combination of naval gunfire, waves of Shturmoviks, and the encircling moves of Russian armies trained in a combination of "deep operations" and the "hedgehog defense" that hurt the German forces in the last stages of the Battle of France devastated the vanguard of Army Group South, stopping their advance cold for a solid week and enabling more reserves to be moved forward from the heart of Russia.

The Germans also reinforced and surged forward again, preceded by a wave of Luftwaffe bombers intent on destroying the ships. Though several ships were destroyed, the Russian Air Force extracted a terrible toll on the attackers. Fighting raged for weeks in the country around the city. The German commanders sought to withdraw several times, only to be countermanded by Hitler. By the time they received permission to pull back, the German units were shadows of their former selves.

Meanwhile, the other detachments of Army Group South approached Krivoy Rog. The battle here was even fiercer than Kiev-without the massed naval guns, the Germans were able to break into the city in several places, at massive cost to the civilian population and to the city itself. However, even those units were worn down. The German commanders eventually risked Hitler's wrath by retreating without orders before the Russians could encircle them fully. Though several units were unable to extricate themselves from the city and were captured or destroyed, the other half of Army Group South retreated to positions just east of their start lines. Hitler's attempt to conquer the entire Ukraine had failed.

Meanwhile, Tukhachevsky was preparing a corps-level "deep operation of his own" to take advantage of the battering of Army Group South and the fact Army Group Center had shifted its axis of attack to assist Army Group North in the assault on St. Petersburg. A massive Russian army was gathering near Moscow, to surge forward into the widening gap between the German armies. The force would then move northward into the rear of the two northern army groups and crush them against the Baltic anvil, then move south and finish off Army Group South.

Unfortunately, the combined German armies on the Baltic moved north sooner than anticipated...


	8. The Dragon Comes, The Tyrant Falls

**The Coming of the Dragon and the Fall of the Tyrant**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Army Group North launched an offensive north from its river lines towards the vast Russian army shielding Riga and St. Petersburg from the Germans. In the meantime, Army Group Center rolls northward towards Vilnius, with the goal of following the Dvina northward. The combined German armies-totaling over one million soldiers-intend to crush the equally large Russian force in the region of Jelgava, then capture Riga and resume the advance toward St. Petersburg.

Spoiling attacks from Russian forces from the Smolensk region slow Army Group Center down, forcing them into battles all along the frontier of White Russia. This throws a wrench into the German timetable and Hitler's generals suggest slowing Army Group North down to wait for Army Group Center. Hitler rejects this suggestion, claiming that Army Group North can pin the Russian army in place while Army Group Center drives them into the Baltic.

The Russian armies pull back in the face of Army Group North to narrower front near Jelgava. In the meanwhile, vast stocks of poison gas-the WWI favorites like mustard gas and phosgene gas, as well as newer toxins like sarin and tabun-are brought forward. The Russians know Hitler's history with gas and know that the Germans will be less inclined to retaliate.

The poison-gas bombardment of Army Group North begins on March 1, with a smaller bombardment unleashed by the Russian armies harrying Army Group Center. The initial casualties are horrific, although the Germans soon get their chemical-warfare gear out and fight on. Chemical retaliation is not coming, as Germany's gas stocks were not ready for deployment.

Despite this, Army Group North grinds forward, forcing the Russians back. Jelgava becomes a killing ground. The Russians begin deploying uranium penetrator rounds of their own, as well as the first generation of attack helicopters. Meanwhile, a multiplicity of smaller forces harry Army Group Center; their advance grinds to a halt halfway to Riga.

Meanwhile, Tukhachevsky's great "deep operation" is ready to be launched. Per the plan, the Russians' northern armies fall back on Riga itself and the harassing attacks on Army Group Center slow considerably. Both German forces spring forward...

Only for an enormous Russian army, whose tanks are almost entirely T-55s and who are lavishly equipped with the latest Shturmoviks and attack helicopters, to pour forward from Moscow, through Smolensk and Minsk, into the heart of German-occupied territory, into the lines of communication and second-rate troops of two of the three Germany Army Groups. One force splits off to block any relief effort from Army Group South; the bulk of the army moves north into the German rear areas in Lithuania, threatening Vilnius.

The German army groups that have enclosed Riga immediately fall back, with Army Group North retreating towards Siauliai and Army Group Center towards Daugavpils. Army Group South moves north, but its advance is harried by the Pripet Marshes and the Russian blocking force.

There is a way home for the northern German armies along the Baltic into Prussia, but the Russian Air Force is raiding as far as the Courland Lagoon and time is not on the Germans' side.

The Draka now know that Germany will be the weaker target, not Russia. The perfect opportunity is coming-with the _rasputitsa_ season coming in Russia, the German armies will not be able to easily retreat from Russia to defend their homeland and their western conquests. Nor will the Russian armies be able to easily follow.

On April 14th, 1942, the Domination deploys airborne drops to seize the north end of the Pyrenees passes, trapping the defenders between themselves and the main forces moving up from the south.

The Germans are prepared for their eventuality due to the fact they've done it themselves to the Czechoslovaks and to others and have more flak units on hand. Consequently, the Domination sends more aircraft intended to suppress enemy air defenses along with the Hippo transports. The end result is bloodier for both sides, particularly for the Draka paratroops, but it is still the same.

Eric von Shrakenberg, Sofie Nixon, and their unit collaborate with local units of the French Resistance and Basque villagers to defeat the Germans in their area. Von Shrakenberg makes arrangements with the accompanying American reporter Dreiser to get the French out, using the latter's contacts with the American Friends Service Committee.

This raises the ire of the Security Directorate, already annoyed by how von Shrakenberg had sent his serf daughter to America some years before. They attempt to arrest him using the chaos of the battle to cover their tracks and von Shrakenberg's loyal soldiers kill them, concealing their treachery the same way.

Meanwhile, Draka forces move northward along the eastern coast, taking Perpignan rapidly. Montpellier and Nimes are next on the target list. Draka forces are also moving towards Bordeaux in the west coast, in the face of stiffening Vichy and German resistance. Marshal Petain, head of the German-dominated Vichy government, sends peace feelers to the Draka in hopes of switching sides and preventing the enserfment of French civilians, to no avail.

In the Balkans, Draka troops surge out of the territory seized from Bulgaria at the end of the earlier war, moving along the Maritsa River towards Plovdiv, along the coast from Draka-held Burgas towards Varna, and into Greece along the Thracian Sea. Bulgarian resistance is fanatical-years of horror tales from Bulgarian escapees from Draka-held regions have made them well aware of what Draka conquest means. The Germans provide air support and other assistance, but the bulk of their resources are flowing into Russia.

The Draka units move out of their new province in southern Italy, against the Italians and Germans. It's slow going due to the terrain and the quality of the Italian units varies-some fight fanatically, fearing what was done to their southern kinsmen will happen to them, while others desert and leave the Germans to face the oncoming Snakes.

Meanwhile, units from North Africa and Sicily begin crossing over into Sardinia. Cagliari falls quickly, but the Italians and their German minders begin digging into Sassari and forming defensive lines along the rivers in the center of the island. The massed airborne attack from Draka-held territory makes this very difficult.

Hitler is apoplectic with rage at this betrayal, particularly by fellow "Aryans," and orders German units everywhere to hold the line. However, he refuses to permit a massed retreat from Russia that would provide sufficient troops to contain the Draka at their bridgeheads and eventually force them back.

The German Resistance, whose "Valkyrie" plot devised by von Stauffenberg would theoretically provide a way to sweep Hitler and his loyalists out of power in Hitler's own name, recognizes the problem and ups the ante of their plotting. The ideological overlap between the more fanatical Nazis, who claim to be superior to other whites much like the Draka, makes it easier for people to believe that the SS could have made common cause with the Domination. The early defeats the Germans and their vassals have suffered makes the situation more urgent.

The first large-scale battle in France comes in late April, as the Draka near Montpellier. It's a hard-fought fight that leaves the city in ruins but ultimately, the Draka triumph. The German forces do not retreat per Hitler's orders and are encircled and destroyed, with the prisoners being executed en masse and their severed heads built into pyramids.

In Italy, the Germans hold the Draka back due to the terrain. Unfortunately, the terrain also enables the Draka to repulse German counterattacks. It's a gruesome back-and-forth slog.

In Greece, Thessalonica becomes a western version of Krivoy Rog, as it blocks any further Draka advance. The city falls after weeks of house-to-house fighting. The defeated Germans who fall into Draka hands receive the same treatment as the ones in Montpellier.

In Bulgaria, the Draka attempt to take Sofia by storm, but are driven back in a fierce battle that included a personage no less than the King manning a big gun. However, the Draka control most of Bulgaria below the Balkan Mountains at this point, and more waves of Janissaries pour out of Asia Minor. Sofia will fall, eventually.

Enough was enough. The German plotters act on May 15th, 1942. Hitler is blown up in his lair and "Valkyrie" is activated. The SS in Paris surrender without a shot being fired, while other formations resist a bit more effectively but eventually go down. Within a week, the German Resistance is in control of the entire Third Reich.

Now in power, the new German government sends out peace feelers towards the Allies, pointing out the common danger of the Draka. The US, filled with anti-German sentiment and egged on by various anti-German ethnic lobbies, rejects any deal with the Valkyrie junta, viewing them as little better than the Nazis they supplanted. The British are more interested, but the Draka threaten to assist the Japanese, who now threaten Australia itself. With the entire continent as a hostage, the British refuse to recognize the new government nor make peace, though they do lighten the intensity of their war effort.

However, the Russians have spent more than 20 years preparing to fight the Domination and now is the opportunity. The Russian Republic recognizes the new government of Germany and an armistice is immediately arranged. The Baltic road is not closed off and German units begin move en masse out of the Baltic region, flowing through Germany and towards the oncoming Draka in southern Europe. Army Group South begins retreating back towards the Balkans, to defend against the Draka incursions there.

The Domination is enraged. Unless the Russians intern the remaining armies on their territory, the Draka will declare war.

In Russia, the elderly Kornilov reads the Snakes' demands and smiles grimly. The war he predicted would come before he crushed the Bolsheviks decades ago had arrived. Russia would fulfill its destiny as the savior of Europe from the forces of barbarism.

On May 30th, the Domination of the Draka declares war on the Russian Republic. The Russian Republic reciprocates.

Air battles break out all along the Domination's southern frontier with the Russians, from Crimea through the Caucasus to Afghanistan. Central Asia and the Middle East will become the primary theater of the war between the Dragon and the Bear...


	9. Clash of the Three Titans

**The Dragon and The Bear: Clash of The Three Titans**

By Matthew W. Quinn

The Draka, seeking to keep the war off their soil and keep the "enemy without" (Russia) from linking up with the "enemy within" (the serfs) strike northward into Russian territory, attempting to seize control of the northern part of the Caucasus passes with paratroops while sending their main forces north through the southern end of the passes.

The Russians are even more prepared for this than the Germans were. Though a couple of mountain passes are seized in this manner, theDraka are forced back from others, at a high cost in Citizen paratroopers. Georgia becomes a battleground.

Meanwhile, Draka forces in Iran and Afghanistan go on the offensive themselves. Draka ships carry armies of Janissaries and Citizen troops across the Caspian, headed for Astrakhan, Aktau, and Makhachkala. Other forces strike into OTL Turkmenistan, heading for the Oxus.

Along the way, the Draka forces vent their anger on the Russian citizenry for interfering with their war with Germany. Lots of rape, impaling, and rounding up civilians en masse to sell into slavery in the Persian provinces rather than leaving them to be collected by Security later.

Luckily, the Russians have known this war was coming for a long time and they're amply prepared. Sweeping tank battles reminiscent of our world's Arab-Israeli or Persian Gulf Wars break out all across the deserts of the south. Neither side has anywhere to hide from each other's Shturmoviks and Rhinos.

Meanwhile, on the Caspian, the Draka make some initial landings thanks to their volume of firepower preceding them, but the follow-up assaults are shredded. The Draka cling to their beachheads, exacting many times their number in casualties before they go down. Few Janissaries and almost no Citizens are taken prisoner as the beachheads fall.

On the Black Sea, the Draka launch a massive airstrike on Crimea, devastating the port facilities and the remnants of the Black Sea Fleet left there while the rest made the land-river journey to defend Kiev. The place is littered with cluster bombs to make any effort to repair the site difficult. The Russian ships, making their way back towards the Crimea from Kiev, will not be going anywhere for awhile.

The Draka meet much more success in Western Europe. Toulouse and Bordeaux fall before the massive numbers of German reinforcements can get there. As the armies of the Third Reich pour into France, the Draka establish a defensive line along the Garonne River. The Germans, meanwhile, establish lines of their own along the Rhone River. The Central Massif promises to become a particularly brutal war zone.

In Italy, the Draka take Foggia, although Naples manages to hold out. In Sardinia, the Germans and Italians have been compressed all the way to a line stretching from Alghero through Sassari all the way to Tempio Pausania. The defenders are evacuating as many civilians and wounded as possible through Corsica to the mainland, defended by the Luftwaffe operating out of northern Italy.

All parties up the ante on their nuclear program as much as possible, with the Russians supplying the German effort with uranium. The German scientists, particularly Heisenberg, suddenly become much more productive-rather than Hitler being the ultimate beneficiary of their efforts, it's a Prussian military junta promising to hold elections when the war is over.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Japan's six months of victories over the Western Allies is coming to an end. They make some landings in northern Australia, but are contained near their beachheads. Though the Enterprise was lost at Pearl Harbor, other American and British carriers make life difficult for the Japanese. This includes staging something very similar to OTL's Doolittle raid.

In China, Chiang Kai-Shek manages to become supreme among the decapitated Taiping government's generals. Some of the Emperor's many sons were not found in the devastated remains of the Imperial convoy, so it is possible the dynasty will ultimately be restored. If that is not possible, Kai-Shek rather likes the idea of becoming a Shogun to an elected government, rather similar to Kornilov in Russia.

Meanwhile, Mao Zedong, a young scholar of Marxist sympathies, begins gathering his own following among the poor and dispossessed. He too will make war upon the Japanese, although his plans for the postwar world are rather different than Kai-Shek's.


	10. Machines of War and Politics

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Machines of War and Politics**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As 1943 dawns, both the Russo-German alliance and the Draka unleash new technologies.

In the air, the Germans and Russians deploy jet aircraft. The Germans hold the lead with their Me-262s, used in their proper role of fighters and not, as Hitler had insisted, as long-range bombers. The Russians tested out the MiG-15, which leapfrogged the earlier generations of MiGs thanks to German technical assistance.

The Russo-German alliance also unleashes waves of V-1 and V-2 rockets, built en masse in Russian factories. These rockets, equipped with poison gas, are particularly helpful in Italy.

At sea, the German U-boat fleet is now equipped with fuel cells. Thanks to their extended range and increased quietness, the Atlantic is now a very hazardous place for Draka naval ships. Airships cannot be harmed by torpedoes, but antiaircraft deck guns are a different matter. The Domination's foreign trade is seriously impaired.

The Draka have not been idle. Their own factories churn out millions of gallons of poison gas. Eschewing a surface fleet except for anti-submarine craft like destroyers, they focus on new and lethal submarines of their own. They also make better use of helicopters and even produce early models of VTOL fighters, reducing their need for conventional airstrips. Draka scientists experiment with rocket-powered aircraft-faster than jets-as well.

Now that the Domination forces have been cleared from their Caspian beachheads, Russian troops begin preparing to cross the Caspian and invade the Domination itself. Massed armies of Muslim troops are raised to better liaise with the Muslim serf population of the region and avoid any misunderstandings. Muslim Janissary prisoners are sought out in order potentially "turn" them.

However, there are still Draka forces south of the Oxus to deal with. A series of enormous armored battles have been raging for months as both sides funnel vast numbers of men and machines into the region. Over one million Russian and Janissary troops, as well as tens of thousands of Citizens, have died thus far. The Russians continue feeding the meat grinder, hoping to keep the Domination's attention pinned there while they plan to attack through Georgia — where the Draka are slowly being driven back — and across the Caspian into Persia.

Meanwhile, round-the-clock efforts to repair the Crimean naval facilities are underway, protected from the Draka air forces by enormous numbers of Russian aircraft. Already Tukhachevsky, with the input of the elderly Kornilov and Deniken, is planning a great land-and-sea offensive southward to claim Constantinople and realize the Czars' dreams at last.

In the Balkans, the Draka have been largely contained in eastern Greece, north of Mount Olympus. Sofia has fallen at a terrible cost to the Draka, cutting Bulgaria in half. Airmobile Draka forces are cleaning out Bulgarian and German units that have gone to ground in the Rhodope Mountains. Varna and Dobrich have fallen, although the Germans and Romanians have contained the Draka along the Danube in the east and the Balkan Mountains in the west. Raids have been launched into Yugoslavia, although the Draka are not able to launch full-scale operations in the area-yet.

In Italy, the Draka are drawing ever closer to Rome. The Germans and Italians are rapidly moving civilians and cultural treasures out of the city, knowing their likely fate if the city falls into Draka hands. Casualties on both sides are enormous.

In France, both the Draka and the Germans and their allies are coming to grips with each other in the Central Massif. The area between Limoges and Nimes is becoming a slaughterhouse.

Meanwhile, the Security Directorate is becoming alarmed at the spread of Communist and other left-wing ideas among the Janissary forces that have been based in Spain. There've been a lot of grumbling, graffiti, and even the killing of a couple of Citizen officers who'd been too careless with the lives of their "jungleboys." Fifty Janissaries have been shot for real or suspected seditious activity, and duels have been fought between military officers sure of their men's innocence and Security Directorate officers who think otherwise.

Archon Palme and the commanders of the Draka military have decided to expend as many Janissaries as possible who've been in Spain too long and replace them with loyal troops from Africa. Pacification efforts in Spain are to be made more brutal-whole labor-camp populations are shot and those previously left alone are sent to the now-empty camps-to eradicate the sources of the ideological infection and set an example to the new troops.

More and more resources are now devoted to the Draka nuclear program. The Domination is growing less sure of its victory, but if they get nukes before the others do, they will be able to destroy their enemies and declare peace on their terms before the prolonged war-which has killed three million Janissaries and 200,000 Citizens thus far-bleeds the Citizen caste dry or provokes the serfs into rebellion.

Politically, the new leadership of the Third Reich begins making formal peace treaties with all the nations the previous government had occupied. German troops are withdrawn from Norway and Denmark, whose reconstituted armies soon follow them into battle against the Draka. The new governments issue proclamations forbidding the British from landing in their territory and the British, whose heart is no longer in the war, do not challenge them.

In mid-1943, the Germans and the French sign a formal peace treaty. Alsace-Lorraine is returned to Germany and German garrisons-already depleted to feed the battles raging in southern France-are removed entirely. The Free French return to the Continent and to power in France. German troops removed from the Low Countries as well.

Working out a formal treaty with Russia is a bit thornier due to the fact that the Valkyrie junta wants the territories lost in the First War back. However, they're not in a very strong position at the moment. It is ultimately decided that plebiscites will be held on the matter AFTER the conflict is settled.

Once that is done, the European states form an official alliance to eject the Draka from Europe forever. A new European Union is proclaimed in August of 1943, with its headquarters in Warsaw. Despite the annoyance of the French, the location, in Russia but close to Germany, shows where the real power lies in the new alliance.

American popular opinion is torn on what to do. Though many seek to focus American attention on the Pacific and the Japanese, who were the ones who "started it," the American leadership is still not convinced of the democratic bona fides of the new German government. Jews, Poles, and others whose kindred were victimized by the Nazis, as well as left-wing groups, hold demonstrations in protest of any peace with "the Hun." These demonstrations turn into brawls when counter-protestors from nations currently under the Draka boot-Spaniards, Greeks, and Italians- and right-wing groups turn out.

The 1944 election is going to be a fun one.


	11. Into The Domination

**The Dragon and the Bear: Into the Domination**

By Matthew W. Quinn

In late August of 1943, the Bear roars. A two-thousand bomber raid is launched on Draka positions in Georgia, following by waves of paratroopers and armored thrusts. Within two weeks, the Draka are hurled out of Georgia and Russian troops stand on the borders of the Domination's Armenian provinces.

Massive, punishing air raids are launched at the northern regions of the Domination bordering Russia-areas that had once been the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Afghanistan. Waves of Draka aircraft rise from Kars and other airfields to meet them, but the Russians' numbers and rough technological parity drive the Draka from the sky. Follow-up attacks crater every airfield they can find, although theDraka VTOL aircraft mean that they'll be able to conduct pop-up air attacks from any field or flat area.

Once the Domination's air force and fixed defenses had been sufficiently degraded, the Russian armies surge southward in a great march southward that a century ago would have given the British government a collective stroke. The initial objectives are Vanadzor and Baku in the west, Mashad in the provinces carved out of Persia, and Herat, Balkh, Konduz, and Mazar-e-Sharif in the Draka's Bactrian province. The latter three cities would give the Russians a foothold on the great highway the Draka built linking Kandahar to Kabul to the north, while Herat would give them another way into Persia.

Draka resistance is fierce, especially once the pre-war border was crossed and the Draka were fighting on their own ground. Both sides unleashed enough poison gas to kill the populations of whole cities. The Russian advance is slow and bloody, but by the end of October, the initial objectives had all been taken.

However, maintaining order in the newly-occupied territories proved to be somewhat challenging. All of the Citizen administrators had either been killed in the attack or fled southward, as had most of the serf bureaucrats and police. Orgies of bloodletting broke out across the northern arc of territory as the newly freed serfs took an unpleasant revenge on Janissaries, Security Directorate "chain dogs," particularly unpleasant foremen, and any Citizen they could catch.

Eventually, the Russians decided to maintain their momentum and keep moving, leaving military police and reserve units to keep order in the rear. To avoid problems, these units were largely Muslim except in what used to be Armenia.

The Russian armies rolled southward, their advanced foreshadowed by serf revolts whenever they drew close or it was imagined they did. Russian armies were greeted by impaled rebels on stakes-or impaled Draka and their allies when the rebels managed to gain the upper hand.

Russian paratroopers dropped en masse on Kabul in early November just as the country's cruel winter began. There they find a slaughterhouse-the Draka, their Janissaries, and other serf loyalists had either killed or driven into the winter to die all the serfs they could not trust. Russian armies advanced down the road through the Hindu Kush were momentarily held up by the Draka at Charikar and Mahmud-e-Raqi, leaving the paratroopers and the Draka to fight over the city for days before the bulk of the Russian army managed to break through to the city.

With the Draka ground forces dealing with the invaders south of the Georgia passes, northeastern parts of Persia, and in Afghanistan, the great cross-Caspian invasion began. Waves of Russian troops took the northernmost ports by storm, creating a contiguous liberated zone stretching from Baku all the way through Mashad.

This unprecedented series of defeats sends waves of shock and rage throughout the Domination. New armies of Janissaries are raised, stripping many regions bare of young men of the proper age, while even more Citizen troops are called to the colors. These armies are swelled by Citizens and serf loyalists driven out of the occupied provinces by the Russians or by rebellious serfs.

The Draka begin massing in Tehran. Meanwhile, Russian troops liberate Tabriz, beginning the long march to the Persian capital. Massed Russian aerial attack pounds Draka positions throughout Persia, though the Draka are bringing in waves of new aircraft to contest these attacks.

During these great aerial battles, Johanna von Shrakenberg is shot down over Amol. She manages to initially escape capture and attempts to flee into the mountains, where Russian troops and newly-freed serfs run her to ground. She kills three of her pursuers and is only barely prevented from killing herself-there is a reward out for live Citizens, who would make useful bargaining chips.

The Draka army in Tehran marches northwest towards the Russian armies pouring out of Tabriz. The two armies collide in Qazvin in a battle that levels the city. The Russians are forced back towards Tabriz, but at an atrocious cost in Citizens and Janissaries.

Meanwhile, the Draka gather all the troops they can spare from Asia Minor and even occupied Bulgaria to hurl eastwards, to assail Tabriz from a different direction. The armies march towards the Persian frontier, the skies above their heads constantly being torn asunder by aerial battles.

At his headquarters in Kiev, Tukhachevsky smiles. The Crimean bases are repaired now and the fleet has long since made the tortuous journey back down the river. The Draka are pulling troops out of their new conquests to defend their older ones, leaving the great prize of Constantinople relatively unguarded.

He knows that he doesn't have much time. The Russians are aware the Domination is getting closer and closer to developing an atomic bomb. Both sides work their scientists for long hours, determined to get a working weapon. If the Draka get one first, the Russian armies could be mauled as they move south; if the Russians do, the Draka armies and cities can be smashed from the air and all the ground forces need to do is mop up.

The great Draka relief force arrives at Erzurum. They are not there long when waves of Russian bombers rip into them and the transport lines behind them and before them. They're stuck there when word arrives that the Russian fleet has left Crimea, while Russian and Romanian troops are marching south towards Bulgaria.

The Constantinople Campaign has begun...


	12. A Step Forward, A Step Back

**The Dragon and the Bear: A Step Forward, a Step Back**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Protected by masses of Russian and German aircraft, the Russian fleet crosses the Black Sea. Draka submarines and aircraft contest its passage, but are blasted aside with minimal losses to the armada.

Meanwhile, Russian forces begin retracing the 1877 advance southward, heading for Constantinople. The Draka disengage from besieged Bucharest and Ploeisti and rapidly advance eastward to block the oncoming Russians. The two armies collide at Constanta in a brutal three-day engagement that consumes tens of thousands of lives. Backed by masses of air power, the Russian armies prevail, driving theDraka out of Romania entirely.

The Draka recognize the army's goals and establish heavy defenses along a line stretching from Ruse to Razgrad to Dobrich. The Russian army all but levels the three cities with air and artillery fire before taking what was left by storm, shattering the Draka lines. The Drakaforces fall back to Burgas and pull back soldiers from occupied Sofia and the ongoing mop-up operations in the Rhodope Mountains. Drakaforces pulled out of the Greek front-line at Giannitsa; a screening force is left at Kalamaria to prevent the Greeks and Germans from pursuit. An army of nearly half a million Janissaries and 100,000 Citizen troops will meet the Russians at Burgas.

A massive amphibious landing takes place between Zonguldak and Bartun. Russian troops spread out along the coastline, taking Zonguldak, Bartun, Cide, Inebolu, and Sinop within days. The Kur Daglari highlands slow their advance, but paratroopers seize important hills and observation points. Naval gunfire is used to deter local Draka forces from attacking the landing zones.

Draka forces from all over western Asia Minor begin making their way towards Ankara. This is slow going due to massive Russian aerial attacks on the rail hubs and communications centers. Once gathered, the army will move northward towards Bolu, for an overland thrust towards Zonguldak.

In the cities they occupy, the Russian armies run into the same problems that the comrades-in-arms run into in liberated Persia and Afghanistan. Much of the population is illiterate and the literate serfs tend to be among the higher-status ones who took their chances with the Draka. With the administrative and law-enforcement apparatus broken, revenge attacks break out everywhere and the Russian army has trouble keeping order.

The leading elements of the Draka army-hardened, elite Citizen troops-are the first to arrive at Bolu. They dig in as the Russian armies begin flowing westward along the Anatolian coast.

In Persia, the Russians advance on two fronts. Russian troops-with increasing numbers of Afghans who have not forgotten what it means to be free and bear arms-pour out of Herat and crush the Draka stragglers trapped between liberated Mashad and Herat. The army begins marching westward towards Tehran. Meanwhile, the Russian army defeated at Qazvin begins rolling eastward. The two Russian armies intend to crush the remaining Draka forces in northern Persia between them. The masses of Janissaries begin turning Tehran and Qom into fortresses, while the Citizen units conduct spoiling attacks on the advancing Russian armies. This causes serious hold-ups at Semnan and Qazvin, but even the victories cause valuable Citizen lives and the Draka eventually withdraw into Tehran with their serf soldiers, ready to bleed the Bear before they go down.

Tehran is bombed mercilessly for days as the Russians mass the enormous numbers of men and machines needed to break the equally enormous numbers of Janissaries and Draka holed up inside.

As Tehran looks like a Ragnarok waiting to happen, the Russians advance elsewhere in Persia. Another army moves south from Tabriz, blasting aside Janissary and Security garrisons in Maragheh, Sanandaj, and Bakhtaran as they advance along the eastern edge of the Zagros Mountains. Meanwhile, Russian aircraft conduct airdrops of unedited Korans and Muslim preachers proclaiming holy war against theDraka, infidels who have dared violate Muslim lands. Serf uprisings break out in Arak, Dezful, Ahvaz, and even in Basra and Abadan, site of valued oil production and refining. Draka troops from elsewhere in Arabia crush the revolts on the far side of the Zagros, although Russian aircraft hammer the forces as they move about.

Dezful, however, holds out against Security and the Janissaries thanks to a large and zealous population roused for war and the presence of many Russian infiltrators and paratroopers. As long as Dezful can hold, one of the routes through the Zagros to the Persian Gulf is open.

The campaign in western Persia takes on the character of a race-Russian soldiers all but outstrip their supply lines rushing southeward from Bakhtaran and Eslamabad toward Dezful. Draka forces converge on the city from Al Kut, Al Amarah, and Ahvaz, leaving forests of impaled rebels behind them.

The two forces collide at Dezful just as the ground assault on Tehran begins.

Meanwhile, in Italy, the Draka lay siege to Rome, while other forces probe northward toward Tivoli and L'Aquila. German and Italian forces, swelled by new armies raised elsewhere in Europe, hold the line in the east at Termoli. Enormous numbers on both sides have died.

Waves of German and Russian aircraft pound the Draka daily, but still the Dragon banners advance. There simply isn't room for the great, sweeping battles of manuever and encirclement that take place in France and the Near East-in Italy, it is a war of attrition, and a brutal one at that.

In France, the Draka have begun an attempt outflank the Central Massif, moving forces north through the coastal lowlands towards Angolueme. The rail stations and lines will be a great prize for whoever triumphs.

Here the Draka are pinned at the very approaches to the city, with French and German forces moving into their rear. The army is encircled and slowly ground down at a vast cost. Only a few survivors manage to escape back to Libourne. Several Citizen Force legionary eagles are taken as trophies.

Seeing their northwestern attempt beaten back, the Draka establish new defensive lines along the Isle River. Instead, they strike eastward once again across the Central Massif, along with another attempt towards Nimes and Marseille. Nimes falls, but the European forces make a stand at Arles, which is an integral part of the Rhone line.

As 1944 approaches, the Draka work feverishly on their nuclear project. The primary research sites are in the Sahara, well away from any possible attack. Soon, they will have the means to shatter the Rhone line and claim the south of France for their own, then march into Italy and crush the Germans and Italians between two claws. Then they will break the teeth of the Russians before the very gates of the city they so covet...


	13. The Persian Bloodbath

**The Persian Bloodbath**

By Matthew W. Quinn

_More men! More tanks!_

_-The chant of the Russian army at Kerman, when their general asked what they needed to finish off the Draka in eastern Persia._

As three Russian armies grappled with the Draka in the western regions of Persia, a third army march southward from Mashad towards Kerman. The bulk of the Domination's regular armies in Persia were converging on Dezful or dug in in Tehran and for a long time, the Russian army rolled over ad-hoc legions of common Citizens, garrison troops, retired Janissaries, and Security Directorate goons. In many cases, air power alone was sufficient to crush the Draka units.

The long, easy surge south came to an abrupt end north of Kerman, where the Russian army collided with Draka reinforcements that had been funneled out of Africa, through Arabia and into Bandar Abbas. In a sweeping desert battle, the lead elements of the Russian army were encircled and destroyed and the Russian advance came to an abrupt halt.

The Russian army remained in place for a couple of weeks, gathering reinforcements and beating off Draka raids, then moved forward again. The Draka tried to make lightning strike twice, but they did not anticipate the Russians' much greater numbers and the presence of a new tank-the T-62. The Draka were forced back to Kerman, which was in the midst of a serf uprising, and retreated to Mahan and Bam. Meanwhile, Draka forces began pulling out of Zahaden, which was being heavily bombed by the Russian air force, and attempted to make their way toward Bam as well.

Bam would be the last line of defense before Bandar Abbas.

The Russians, though willing to spend men and machines to win victories, are much more inclined in this world to be careful with the lives of their soldiers than the Soviet Union was in our own. Rather than attempt to take the city by storm, Russian aircraft brave the waves of Draka aircraft operating out of Arabia to spread lots of propaganda leaflets-written and pictoral-over Bam all the way to the outskirts of Bandar Abbas itself. Russian Muslim clerics also sneak through gaps in the Draka lines and although some are impaled or subjected to other unpleasant deaths for "promoting servile insurrection," enough get through to cause serious trouble.

As expected, Muslim serf uprisings break out. In some areas, it gets so bad that frontline troops have to be pulled back to deal with them, and Russian troops attack the weakened Draka lines. Fuel-air explosives are used to clear minefields that would have otherwise gutted the Russian armies.

Bam falls in early December of 1943. Some Russian troops are dispatched eastward to contain Draka forces in Faraj and Rigan that could threaten the advance, while Sirjan is kept under heavy air attack in order to keep it from being used to ship reinforcements to Bandar Abbas.

In the meantime, Draka troops stream across the Strait of Hormuz from Dubai and Ash Shariqah. Many ships are lost to Russian aerial attack, but many others get through. Many Janissaries grumble at being pressed across the water at such great risk, but their Citizen officers are with them, bearing the same risk, and so it's muted...for now.

The battle for Bandar Abbas is a horror that goes on for nearly two weeks. During the first week, the city is pounded with waves of conventional, incendiary, and poison-gas bombs and artillery shells, destroying half the buildings and killing tens of thousands of enemy soldiers and civilians. In the meantime, Russian aircraft destroy the Draka Persian Gulf fleet that was intended for use as naval fire support much like the Russians had used the Black Sea Fleet at Kiev.

The Russians attack at the beginning of the second week. The Russians' tanks, their major strength, are not useful for the house-to-house fighting beyond a certain point. The Draka retreat to tunnels underground, popping up where they're not expected, while any flat space can be used to launch a helicopter or VTOL fighter. Slowly but surely, the Russians grind forward, getting a glimpse of the Persian Gulf now and again before being forced back.

Vasily Zaytsev, the man who in our world distinguished himself as a sniper in Stalingrad, instead earns his reputation by killing the Citizen officers of Janissary units. Over two hundred Citizens die at his hand and though the Draka offer large rewards for his head-and even larger rewards for him alive, so they can torture him to death and broadcast the film-he is never caught. Without their Citizen officers, many Janissary units are disoriented and some even break outright. The Russians take a larger than usual haul of Janissary prisoners as a result.

The Draka, hunters all, deploy their own sniper teams. Russians die in large numbers, but the growing obsession the Draka commander has with the sniper who only kills Citizens means that more and more of them are dispatched to hunt for him rather than attack the Russian units that grind forward.

Ultimately, the last Draka resistance is broken by December 30th. On New Year's Day, the Russian general plants an ancient Czarist battle standard, the Eagle of Muscovy, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Great masses of artillery are brought forward and the Domination's oil exports-one of the pillars of the Draka economy-are cut in half at a stroke.

Meanwhile, Tehran turns into an even bigger bloodbath than Bandar Abbas...


	14. The Liberation of Persia

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Liberation of Persia**

By Matthew W. Quinn

The siege of Tehran begins on November 12th with massive chemical bombardments, followed by aerial deployment of pathogens into the city's known water supplies. Though Draka military hygiene is among the best in the world, there are outbreaks within the city. The Draka withdraw the sickest troops inside the lines and move the healthiest troops outward, presenting no weaknesses to the oncoming enemy.

The first Russian attack is conducted through the sewer system rather than an open aboveground assault. The Draka had intended to wage a pop-up war similar to Bandar Abbas and had forces underground, so the swift advance bogs into a pitch-black underground hell where battles are fought just as often with shovels as with guns. Both sides pour gas down into the sewers, making things even worse.

As battles rage aboveground, the Russians begin surface incursions into the city with a series of preliminary "walking barrages," followed by up-armored and up-engined tanks designed to be invincible urban warfare machines. The Russian troops grind through the vast Persian capital, which has been turned into an urban warfare hell. Masses of cables are hung in every doorway, to tangle Russians so they can be shot. Moats of mud are poured to drown the heavy-laden Russian infantrymen. Every bridge, every street, every building is made a killing ground.

In places, the Draka defenders force the Russians back. Unfortunately for them, the Citizens' personal aggression leads them to hound after the Russians in hopes of creating a rout, leaving them vulnerable to air and artillery attack. The Draka eventually learn to rarely leave their defenses, despite their inborn and cultural aggression.

Meanwhile, the Draka deploy ballistic missiles for the first time, bombarding Russian positions from launch sites in Arabia and Mesopotamia. Russian aircraft hunt for the launchers, but they're contested by massive waves of interceptors piloted for the first time by trusted serfs as well as Citizens. The missile attacks on logistical sites slow the flow of supplies to the Russian besiegers, crippling their advance at times. To make things even more difficult, the diseases deployed against the Draka have infected Russian soldiers as well.

To clear the streets, the Russians devise "flame-tanks," up-armored vehicles mounted with artillery-sized flame-throwers. Though serving in such vehicles is severely unpleasant, the weapons are effective. Slowly but surely, the Russians make their way to the city center and to the seat of the Draka command.

Tehran falls on December 31st with a bang-the Draka general had turned her command site into a gigantic suicide firebomb that killed hundreds of Russian soldiers as well as the Citizen commanders.

Meanwhile, the Draka armies are thrown back from Dezful, site of the largest successful serf rebellion in the Near East to date. A Janissary deserter, who would ordinarily be hated by the common serfs, is hailed as commander of the rag-tag armies of rebellious slaves. The Russians provide him Tajik-speaking officers to bolster his army.

At this point, Archona decides that Persia is a lost cause. The Draka begin evacuating every Citizen, loyal serf, and every object of value from the territories they still control. That which they cannot take with them-be it human or physical property-is destroyed. Vast convoys move south and west toward Mesopotamia before the Russians advance out of Dezful towards Abadan. Other Draka, cut off in eastern Persia, cross the Gulf of Oman to Muscat. These angry, dispossessed Citizens will be a potent political force in the years after the end of the Second Great War.

New defensive lines form along the Shatt-al-Arab as the Russians consolidate their control of Afghanistan and Persia, which will be reconstituted under Russian tutelage. The serf rebel general, hero of Dezful, is in the running to become the next Shah of Iran. Techniques for the rapid instruction of the general public in basic literacy and mathematics-used to great success during the 1920s in Russia-will be deployed in the two occupied regions as soon as peace is declared.

In the Balkans, Burgas falls in early 1944 in a battle that rivals Bandar Abbas for sheer bloodiness. Russian forces advance on Constantinople from the north, while pan-European forces make their way through Sofia and Plovdiv towards Constantinople from the west. Those forces bear southeast at Svilengrad, to trap the Draka forces evacuating Greece. Edirne-or Adrianople, as the Draka insist on calling it-becomes a major European-Draka killing ground as the Russian armies approach Constantinople from the railhead at Corfu.

Meanwhile, the Russian armies in Asia Minor collide with the Draka forces at Bolu. The Draka are forced westwards toward Adapazari and Izmit, falling back towards Constantinople.

Though the impending siege of Constantinople draws everyone's attention, other Russian armies invade Asia Minor from the east. Armies from Batum march along the coast, liberating Trabzon-Draka Trebizond-and eventually meeting up with the other Russian armies at Bafra.

To make matters more fun, the Greeks launch an offensive of their own, targeting western Asia Minor and Smyrna. The Greeks establish a series of beachheads all along the coast and an insurrection of Greek-speaking slaves gives them Smyrna, albeit at a terrible cost.

Though Archon Palme fantasized about using the atomic bomb to destroy the Russian armies massed at Constantinople, the project is not moving fast enough for that to be feasible. She decides that the armies falling back on Constantinople would be better used elsewhere. At Izmit, the Draka forces turn south, heading for Bursa. Everything that floats in Constantinople is used to transport the Draka armies out of the city, towards Yalova. Though harried by Russian and German aircraft, the Draka armies gather at Bursa.

As the Russian armies draw near the City, an enormous series of explosions rock the Hagia Sofia, the Sultan's palace, and other important sites. The Draka have concluded that if they cannot have Constantinople, no one will. Russian forces rush forward to preserve as much of the City as possible, only to run into lots of mines and explosive booby-traps. The claiming of the city is a mess and by the time the fires and explosions are brought under control, half of it has been destroyed.

From Bursa, the Draka armies surge southward to crush the weaker Greek armies. The Draka defeat the Greeks at Bahkesir, Akhisar and Manisa, building pyramids of heads at the site of every victory. Bloodied and under constant air attack, they're thrown back at Smyrna. The Draka retreat to Usak and then Afyon.

In eastern Asia Minor, the Draka armies stranded at Erzurum have finally repaired the transportation system enough to move again. Rather than move west, they move north toward Rize, Pazar, and Trebizond. The two armies meet at Ispir and the Draka advance is checked. Rather than continue to beat themselves against the Russian wall, the Draka retreat back to Erzurum and from there to Bingol and Elzig, ceding much of western Asia Minor.

At Edirne/Adrianople the bloodied Draka army, with an enraged Greece at its back and the Germans in the front, does the unthinkable-it surrenders en masse. Knowing what will happen to them if they return to the Domination, its remaining Citizens apply for political asylum. After some discussion, it is granted-though the Greeks and Bulgarians want these officers' heads for the atrocities the Draka committed, they're a valuable source of intelligence, too valuable to waste-for now. 1,000 Citizens and 50,000 Janissaries go into captivity.

Archon Palme, who had envisioned bringing all of Europe under the Yoke, now finds herself the first Archon to be a net loser of territory, wealth, and population in the entire history of the Domination. The Rationalist Party, long a minor entity opposed to continued expansion, is gathering more and more Citizen interest. Her rivals within the Draka League are stirring, ready to remove her from power rather than risk losing the Archonship for the first time in generations.

Palme, however, has one trump card to play. The Americans detonate a nuclear bomb in New Mexico in February of 1944, and it is not long before the Draka detonate a weapon of their own in March. The European Union does not have such weapons, yet. Palme orders rapid construction of atomic bombs. Italy and France will be the first to feel the nuclear fire, followed by Asia Minor and the Zagros...


	15. The Atomic Peace

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Atomic Peace**

By Matthew W. Quinn

The first recipients of nuclear fire were the Japanese.

The Imperial fleet, hounded out of its conquests to its lair at Truk Lagoon, was on the receiving end of two submarine-launched cruise missiles. Only one of Japan's fleet carriers escaped the two mushroom clouds and the waves of torpedo bombers send to finish the survivors off.

The next two hits were in the logistics hubs of the Kwangtung Army, one target chosen by Chiang Kai-Shek, who was by now the military dictator of most of China, and the other by Mao Zedong, who ran a Communist resistance force in the occupied areas. Both of them took advantage, driving the Japanese towards the sea

Meanwhile, the Draka unleashed the fruit of their own nuclear program. St. Etienne, Lyon, Bollene, and Arles went up in nuclear fire. The Draka surged forward, breaking the Rhone line at Vienne and Orange. One force pushed forward through the blighted landscape towards Grenoble, while the other occupied Avignon and used it as a springboard for Marseille. A third Draka force marches on Lyon.

In Italy, the Draka pull back from Rome and its defenders, low on food, ammunition, and hope, think that they've won.

Then two nuclear bombs strike the most heavily defended portions of the city. The Draka invade soon afterward and go berserk on the city that defied them so long. It takes a full Legion of Security Directorate troops to keep the Vatican from being sacked, but the rest of the city is given to the troops for three days. The pickings are slim-most of the city's cultural wealth and civilian population has long since been removed-but plenty of atrocities are committed against churchmen and women who refused to abandon the city in the face of the oncoming storm.

This is a major PR problem for the Roosevelt administration, which still refused to recognize the Valkyrie junta or, for that matter, most of the other European governments. The Catholic populations of the Northeast and former Mexican states went insane with rage at the "Rape of Rome."

With the elections coming up, the Roosevelt administration was forced to listen. FDR-and soon afterward, Churchill-recognized the new European Union and called for a formal peace treaty with Germany. The Draka fumed and threatened, but the loss of Persia, Afghanistan, and much of Asia Minor rendered them much less threatening.

In Russia, the elected leadership and the military put their heads together. The new weapon threatened to make the current war an even bigger bloodbath than it already was. Though there's enough manpower to continue the current tempo of operations for some time, many people are wondering how many Russian lives a serf is worth, particularly Muslim serfs.

The Russians and Germans were on the verge of testing a nuclear weapon themselves, but it would take time to make such a weapon combat-ready.

Their deliberation was interrupted by peace feelers from the Domination. The Draka were willing to give up all claims to Persia, Afghanistan, Constantinople itself, and even the northern and western coasts of Asia Minor. In exchange, the Russians would withdraw from the interior and allow the Draka to reassert control over the Anatolian Plateau.

After some deliberation, the Russians reject the offer. Doing so would abandon huge numbers of rebellious ex-serfs-who trusted the Russians would protect them-to the tender mercies of the Domination. The Draka could only deliver their bombs by aircraft and the Russians were closing in on air superiority.

The war goes on. Russian forces gather in the Zagros passes, ready to force the Shatt-al-Arab and carry the war into Mesopotamia. Already there's large-scale serf unrest, with thousands being impaled and even more fleeing to the Russian lines. Another Russian army stands ready to march on Mosul and take even more of the Domination's oil industry away.

Meanwhile, the Draka withdrew to the old Ankara Line, which the Ottomans had held against them for many years during the Great War. There, they prepared for the oncoming Russian storm and waited for more atomic bombs to be brought forward.

The first Draka nuclear strike against the Russians comes in late March, on one of the concentrations threatening to cross the Shatt-al-Arab. Though two nuclear bombers are shot down on the way in, one gets through and kills 10,000 Russian soldiers in a single blow. The Russians bury Baghdad, Kuwait City, and Mosul in poison-gas launched by ballistic missiles, killing thousands of Citizens and even more serfs, but the Draka make preparations for another nuclear blow.

Then the Russians and Germans simultaneously detonate atomic bombs of their own. Production is rushed to build more and soon both pillars of the European Union have enough for one last throw of the dice.

The nuclear hammer falls in western and central Italy first. The Draka, who are approaching the Italian border, are hit with several nukes. Several legions are destroyed outright and the battered survivors retreat. Meanwhile, the logistical centers supporting the Draka army occupying Rome are hit, enabling the Germans and Italians to reoccupy the old capital. They find the city empty-the Draka bore away every single non-Draka when they left.

In Asia Minor, the Russians do to the Ankara Line what the Germans did to the Rhone Line, breaking it in three places. The Russian armies surge forward, only to be hit themselves with another nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile, after a demonstration strike in Tokyo Bay fails to sway the Imperial government, Hiroshima and Nagasaki go up. The Japanese surrender to the United States.

Roosevelt then calls on the Europeans and Draka to cease fighting and begin to negotiate. The use of so many nukes will destroy the very lands and populations they're fighting over. The Draka, having lost two million Citizens and fifteen million Janissaries, are growing weary of war. So are the Russians, who have lost fifteen million soldiers of their own.

Archon Palme, Russian President Dmitri Abelev, and German Chancellor Carl Goerdeler schedule a meeting in Athens, Greece, which will be overseen by the ancient Kornilov and Franklin Roosevelt. The resulting Treaty of Athens brings the Second Great War to an end.

Provisions of the Treaty of Athens

-The Draka concede the loss of southern Bulgaria, Asia Minor, Persia, and Afghanistan. Their new northern border will be on the Taurus Mountains in the west and the Shatt-al-Arab in the East.

-However, the Draka gain Spain, Portugal, the entirety of France below Lake Geneva, the entirety of Italy below Latina, Corsica, and Sardinia.

-All Russians and Germans taken as serfs will be freed, as well as all Italians and French taken from areas where the Draka are to withdraw from. This includes any children born in captivity.

-No reparations, to anybody.

-All Janissaries and Citizen POWs will be given the choice as to go home or not. This one nearly causes a mutiny by more conservative Draka, but Palme points out that the Janissaries will likely bring subversive ideas back with them and the Citizens should have died rather than surrender. About half the Janissaries choose to stay, as do around 1/4 of the Citizens. Johanna von Shrakenberg chooses to return.

The treaty is signed in late May of 1944. Though Archon Palme claims the gains outweigh the losses, most of the Citizen population does not agree. The Draka League chooses someone else to be their standard-bearer in the 1946 Archonal elections, which the League nearly loses to the resurgent Rationalists.

Palme retreats to her plantation in East Africa and does not leave for nearly a full year. Upon her return to polite society, she is challenged to a duel by another Draka woman whose brother was killed in the war. She accepts, knowing she will likely lose, and is killed.

Meanwhile, the Draka reorganize their scant gains from the war. The southern coast of France becomes the Province of Occitania, while the remainder becomes the provinces of Burgundia in the east and Aquitania in the west. Draka spoils in Italy, excluding the earlier conquests from the war against Mussolini, are divided into the provinces of Latium and Apulia.

The British, strapped for cash and seeing the strategic uselessness of their old possession, sell Gibraltar to the Draka, evacuating the entire population beforehand.


	16. The War of Pacification

**The War of Pacification**

By Matthew W. Quinn

In 1945, Eric von Shrakenberg, now a Strategos with extensive service in France and Italy under his belt, marries Sofie Nixon in a civil ceremony in 1945 at Nova Cartago in northern Africa. Karl von Shrakenberg and Sannie van Reenan, his aide (and mistress), are present as well.

In 1946, Johanna von Shrakenberg marries to Centurion Thomas Ingolfsson at Claestum Plantation. Ingolfsson establishes his plantation in Apulia, well south of the lands he would have had if the Draka had triumphed in Italy. Eric and Sofie von Shrakenberg witnesses; Karl von Shrakenberg and John Teesdale also present. Though some members of Ingolfsson's family objected to him marrying soldier who had failed to avoid capture and imprisonment during the war, he firmly put them in their place.

In 1947, Lavr Kornilov dies at the age of 77. He has a state funeral in Hagia Sofia, now the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople after the latter's return from exile in Athens. Kornilov prevented a Bolshevik takeover, oversaw the modernization of his country, and presided over the first large-scale military defeat the Domination of the Draka had ever suffered. Guests include FDR (who declined to run for re-election due to health reasons with the war over), Carl Goerdeler, Dmitri Abelev, and, surprisingly, Karl von Shrakenberg and a delegation of top Draka commanders. When asked, the elder von Shrakenberg said it was to honor a worthy opponent.

In late 1947, Chantal and Therese LeFarge escape Chateau Retour, a plantation established by Edward and Tanya von Shrakenberg near Lyon, in the new province of Burgundia. They make their way to the Rhone where it crosses the border into France, but their boat is sunk by Draka patrol gunfire.

Therese is captured by Security personnel and, despite the protestations of Tanya V.S. (who points out Therese has regressed mentally due to her various traumas and isn't fully responsible for her actions), is impaled on the riverbank near the border. Chantal manages to make it to safety and in February 1948, gives birth to twins, the children of Edward. The girl is named Therese, after her sister; the boy is named Edgar, after a very elderly Citizen who did not hold with enslaving fellow whites and hid the sisters from the Security Directorate.

Without the influence of Sister Marya, Chantal does not convert to Catholicism. Without the contacts with Frederick Kustaa's friends in the Office of Strategic Services, they won't have the contacts to enter the American intelligence services as they did in the canon timeline.

Sometime later, Edgar's "crime" is discovered. Despite his age, he is executed by firing squad in 1948. Tanya V.S. later challenges the Security official responsible for Therese's execution to a duel and kills him. The Security Directorate takes note of this and plans revenge.

These incidents are reflected on a much larger scale as the Domination of the Draka begins demobilizing its armies and reorganizing its new conquests-such as they are-in the summer of 1944. It immediately runs into some problems.

Firstly, there's some new land, whose industries need to be reorganized according to theDraka compound/Combine system and whose lands need to be parceled out.

Unfortunately, there are a lot more potential claimants this time around-veterans of the war who think themselves entitled to first pick of the conquered lands due to their service as well as an enormous number of Citizens dispossessed by the loss of southern Bulgaria, Asia Minor, Afghanistan, and Persia. The veterans think the dispossessed don't deserve lands in Europe because they lost theirs to the Russians; the dispossessed in turn claim greater experience in running plantations and businesses in newly-conquered territory.

This leads to some ugly political disputes in the years following Archon Palme's fall. The Draka League splits into a more hard-line Nietzche/Darwin-esque faction known as the "Militants" that thinks the dispossessed failures who should lump it, while the mainstream Draka League wavers between both sides and ends up displeasing everybody. The "Militants" replace Archon Palme in 1946 and hold power until 1953, when the Rationalists, for the first time in their history, manage to gain the Archonship.

Secondly, between Janissaries exposed to socialist, anarchist, or Communist ideas in Spain and France and Muslim Janissaries exposed to jihadist propaganda in the Middle East, there's discontent among the Draka's armed minions. Archon Palme's policy of "expending" potentially unreliable Janissaries from Spain got rid of many potential troublemakers but it radicalized many more, and the spread of jihadist ideas among Muslim Janissaries went unnoticed due to being relatively late in the war.

The first Janissary revolt breaks out in the Kenia province in 1947, where Muslim and Marxist Janissaries made common cause. Their Citizen line officers-those who don't fight their suddenly-rebellious "jungleboys" to the death or kill themselves-are generally shown mercy due to the bonds forged with their men over the course of the war. However, Citizen higher-ups-the ones who gave the orders for frontal assaults that killed so many slave-soldiers or stayed home and luxuriated while other men fought and died-aren't so lucky. The Draka manage to hold the cities, but in the plantations, where the ratio of serf to Citizen is MUCH higher, the rebels enjoy more success.

The lack of subject-race personnel higher than master sergeant meant coordinating attacks beyond the platoon or company level was very difficult. This is what saved the Draka from having to fight a full-scale war to reclaim the Kenia province. The revolt is crushed in a series of short, sharp engagements throughout the southern regions of the province. Ten thousand rebellious Janissaries are killed in combat and thousands of survivors are impaled. Many flee into the wild country and remain a problem for years. The Draka lose about three thousand Citizens. Many Citzens captured by mutineers kill themselves due to the shame, while others die in duels with family members of dead civilians enraged by their "incompetence."

The Draka crack down suspect Janissary regiments all across the Domination, focusing especially on those who served in Spain. Most regiments are surrounded, disarmed, and troublemakers (real or imagined) impaled without trouble. Other Janissaries, who are warned by sympathetic serf bureaucrats or who are already on the verge of revolt anyway, rebel.

In the newly-conquered territory where the Janissaries might unite with the newly-enslaved, this gets particularly ugly. Much of Catalonia falls to an anarchist rising jointly led by a Janissary and a fugitive official from the Spanish Republic, while Lyon is taken over by Communists, some of whom might have been inspired by literature Chantal and her sister were distributing. Some Muslim Janissaries in North Africa even cross over to Gibraltar, overrun the garrison there, and hold out for months before a combination of starvation and storm destroy them.

This leads to a new War of Pacification fought in the conquered territories, a situation made worse by the fact that truncated, vengeful France and truncated, vengeful Italy covertly aid the insurgents. Only the threat of nuclear warfare by the Domination-and threats by the Americans, Russians, and Germans to let them get nuked-keeps the French from intervening openly.

The territories are reconquered with much gruesome reprisal by 1948, at a cost of over 100,000 European serfs, 25,000 rebel Janissaries, 10,000 Citizens killed in the rebellion, 3,000 Citizens killed fighting, and 20,000 loyalist Janissaries. 300,000 serfs manage to escape into France. The Draka replace them with Africans, who are marched past the corpses of impaled rebels to make the point. Like Kenia, there will be "bushman" problems there for years.

When the 1953 elections roll around, the Militants claim to deserve re-election based on the successful crushing of the Janissary revolts and the victory in the War of Pacification. However, the Rationalists point out that this war would not have to be fought if the Draka had stayed in Africa and not bothered with the Europeans. The Militant candidate also injures her chances by being overhead sneering about the dispossessed having a shot at lands in Spain due to the killings of many planters.

As a result, the first non-Draka League Archon since 1870 is elected, a Rationalist named Andrew Howcroft. He briefly ponders ceding southern France back to the French government in exchange for the French leaving the newly-minted Alliance for Democracy (making them vulnerable to future Draka aggression and thus properly subservient) and a large sum of money, only to be shouted down by his own party, which fears losing its brief taste of power. He also reduces the funds flowing to various revenge schemes, including aid to radical Polish nationalists, although the opposition to this scheme means only minor cuts to aid are made.

Since the general Draka public is not interested in altering its foreign policy significantly, Howcroft's primary successes are domestic.

- A greater emphasis on mathematics and science education for Citizen children.

-New laws requiring certain jobs be held only by Citizens, in order to decrease the number of serfs in certain sensitive positions. As a result, these jobs tend to be highly paid, in order to attract Citizens to what used to be "serf work."

-An increased emphasis on space exploration, both to give the Citizens something to vent their aggressive tendencies toward and in recognition of the fact the Draka are geographically hemmed in by the Alliance for Democracy. If the Domination wishes to expand-especially without war-it must go into space.

-The Domination is open once again to carefully-screened immigrants. Although Howcroft was hoping to attract scientific talent with offers of wealth for research-in the manner of older Draka policies that brought such Faraday, Pasteur, and others-this attracts few scientists. Most scientists who meet the racial criteria aren't willing to sell their souls for research purposes and many of those who might get warnings from their home country's security services. Only a few scientists manage to emigrate. Most would-be emigrants turn out to be unreconstructed Nazis, the ones who weren't killed in Goerdeler's purges or deliberately expended fighting the Draka. Most are turned away, though a few particularly unpleasant ones end up being recruited by the Security Directorate.

In the late 1960s, however, they do get one particularly interesting immigrant-the young John Norman, who seeks to study his S&M and Nietzchean-heavy theories in an environment where they're accepted.

In 1960, Howcroft retires due to health-related reasons. The Rationalists scramble for a candidate but flub the election, lead to the return of the Draka League to power. The latter was supported heavily by the military and Security acting in rare alliance due to Howcroft's caution in regards to foreign affairs. The Militants sit in the background and fume-for the moment.

Meanwhile, Eric von Shrakenberg leaves the military in 1964 and enters the Draka Senate as a Rationalist. He publishes his memoirs of the Second Great War and its aftermath-escaping Security censorship using his Senatorial immunity-and his star in Draka politics rises high.


	17. The Beginning of the Space Race

**The Beginnings of the Space Race**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Though the nations that would become the Alliance for Democracy could have theoretically plowed the Domination under in 1944, several factors prevented it.

Firstly, the populations of the various Allied powers were weary of the war. The United States had triumphed over the Japanese, the rapists of the Phillippines and Hawaii, in a welter of thermonuclear slaughter, and found themselves having to rebuild the devastated Home Islands along with other parts of the Japanese Empire like Korea and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the Russians and Germans had taken substantial losses in the Second Great War. Though they could have driven the Draka all the way back to Africa, they would have bled themselves white in doing so and likely suffered nuclear fire on their own homelands. Only the French and Italians really wanted to continue the war and the other Allied powers warned them that they were on their own if they did so. Given this would likely end with ALL the French and Italians going under the Yoke, the Latin nations decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

Secondly, the Russians found to their dismay that the price of victory in the Near East was large indeed. They found nations where three-fourths of the population was illiterate and most of the quarter that could read had been killed in battle or post-victory reprisals or had fled. Afghanistan still had not fully recovered from the Draka conquest of the late 1920s, while Persia was the site of many serf rebellions and some of the bloodiest battles of the war and consequently lost around half its population. The largest city of the former Ottoman Empire was left in ruins by the spiteful Draka. The European Union-soon to become the Eurasian Union when the three Asiatic nations liberated from the Draka joined in the early 1950s-had enough on its hands.

Faced with the task of reviving three nations the Draka had done their best to atomize, the Russians rolled up their sleeves and set to work.

The rebellious Janissary who led an army of serf insurgents to victory over the Draka in Dezful and along the Shatt-al-Arab-who claimed his father was a Persian officer named Pahlavi-soon became Shah of Iran with Russian backing. Though he chafed at the restrictions the Russian-written constitution imposed on his rule, the possibility of the bloodied Dragon lurking across the Shatt-al-Arab taking revenge kept him in line. The Russians applied the mass-literacy techniques that taught millions of Russian peasants to read and write during the early days of the Republic to Persia, creating a largely literate Persian public within six years.

Afghanistan proved difficult to assemble a coherent government for, as governance above the tribal level was an iffy thing anyway before the Draka came. Old tribal identities re-emerged due to renewed contacts with brethren across the borders with British India and Russia, with the outside serfs brought in by the Draka largely subsumed into them. Luckily, the Afghans just had an object lesson in the dangers of foreign conquest and domination and were more willing to tolerate a stronger central government for the purpose of defense against a possible return of the Draka. Not TOO much stronger, but still there. There was also enough gratitute towards the Russians to tolerate a mass-literacy program on the Persian model, although the tribes looked upon many Western ideas with disdain.

In Asia Minor, the Russians started off by claiming the long-awaited prize of Constantinople for themselves immediately. The Bulgarians promptly grabbed as much of Turkey-in-Europe as they could, although the Russians forbade them from taking Adrianople. The Greeks claimed Smyrna and some territory around it, although the Russians prevented the "population adjustments" the Greeks claimed they needed to expand their "liberated zone" on the western coast to the degree they'd liked.

The Russians nearly had established a new "Republic of Trebizond" along the northern coast until their breach of the Ankara Line drove theDraka from Anatolia entirely. It would have been easier to revive the Ottoman Empire, which most of the population could remember from their own lifetimes, but no surviving Ottoman could be found. The Draka had done their work very thoroughly-the last known Ottoman heir had been assassinated in Paris during the war. In the end, they established a Turkish Republic with its capital at Bursa. The Turks would remain for a long time under Russian tutelage due to the need to build the country's institutions from the ground up on top of educating the population.

It took the War of Pacification and the wave of refugees from Draka-occupied Spain, France, and Italy to remind the Allied powers that the Domination wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. The leaders who assumed the Domination would fall to its rebellious slave-soldiers once the Citizens' aura of invincibility was gone were proven wrong by the repression of the Janissary revolts, while those who thought the chastened Draka would content themselves with what they had were proven wrong by a wave of bombings in Russian Poland whose perpetrators fled to the Domination upon discovery.

The Russians and the Germans knew all too well the politics of revenge and called for a conference in Warsaw in 1948. There, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, American President Harry S. Truman, Generalismo Chiang Kai-Shek, Indian President Jawaharlal Nehru, and others gathered to establish the Alliance for Democracy, to keep the Dragon that once attempted to devour the heartland of Western civilization from trying again-or attacking anywhere else besides. The European Union remained its own sub-entity within the Alliance for Democracy.

Though the Allies of WWII had coordinated their economies as well as their armies, the Germans and Russians balked at this kind of union. TTL's version of the Alliance for Democracy would be more similar to NATO than the canon timeline's, which started out as an EUish entity and then turned into a federation by the time of the Final War.

The Protracted Struggle with the Domination began with urgency in 1950, when the Draka launched a missile from a test site in the Sahara to a landing zone in the Kalahari. This meant the Draka could hit anywhere in Europe or Russia with a nuclear weapon, as well as much of the United States.

The European Union responded with its own test of a true ICBM that same year, firing a missile from Germany all the way to Vladivostok. In 1951, the US responded an ICBM test of its own in the Pacific.

The Draka, under the exploration-minded Rationalist government, were the first to recognize the non-military uses of rockets. In 1954, they launched the first satellite in orbit, followed soon afterward by the first animal in orbit (a dog) and the first man in orbit (a French factory serf who had struck an overseer and rather than be impaled, was fired into orbit to see how long it would take him to die).

It was not long before the new technology of scramjets began to compete with rockets. The first scramjet was launched into orbit from Germany in 1955, with a Russian scramjet launched in 1956, an American one in 1957, and a Draka one in 1959. The US put the "Skylab" in orbit in 1960, a station intended for scientific endeavor that also happened to carry a couple of nuclear bombs just in case. Small Draka, American, and European (German and Russian, mostly, with a few others) stations proliferated across low-earth orbit over the next few years, for research, industry, commerce, or military purposes. Some asteroids passing close to Earth were captured and pulled into stable orbits for mining purposes.

In 1963, the Americans put their noses to the grindstone and both the US and the Domination planted their respective flags on the Moon. To facilitate settlement of the Moon, the Draka constructed the large "New Archona" space platform in 1965, something that caused a panic in the Alliance due to the possibility of a Draka "Death Star" dropping gigantic chunks of moon rock from orbit. The Draka then founded the first lunar city, Nova Virconium, in 1964. The lunar regolith used to armor a new generation of battle-stations, one of the first major aggressive moves the Draka League government made after seven years of more pacific Rationalist rule.

Not to be outdone, the Alliance founded cities of its own on the Lunar surface. The Japanese founded New Edo, while the British founded Britannia. The Americans founded Roosevelt, Douglas, and Lincoln, the latter located perilously close to Draka-claimed Lunar territory. The Russians built the twin cities of Kerensky and Kornilov. A new generation of battle-stations was made using the massive amounts of moon-rock for armor.

Amid the constellations of Alliance space stations, American, European, and Japanese scientists tested out the first generation of nuclear pulse propulsion engines. The first of these vessels, the Orion, was launched in 1965, traveling to the Moon and back in significantly less time than it took scramjets and rockets to do so.

The Draka soon found themselves in a race against the Alliance to build a vessel of their own-whoever built enough of them would reach Mars first, when it got close enough, and then spread across the planetary surface during the two years it was far from Earth. Some judicious sabotage-a bit of debris from a Draka mining project that just happened to severely damage the first large-scale pulse-drive vessel-delayed the first Alliance expedition to Mars long enough for the Draka to launch an expedition of its own a few days ahead of the Alliance. The Alliance ship had a better drive, so they made up the gap quickly and both sides' publics spent the next two months tracking the progress of their respective ships as they headed for Mars.

Both ships arrived in July of 1966 and left a plethora of probes to map the surface while some desultory groundside exploration was done. The Alliance claimed Olympus Mons, while the Draka claimed the Valles Marineris.

The commanders of both ships returned to Earth for a hero's welcome in September of 1966. Some people suggested the American commander-a naval officer named Robert Heinlein-run for President. The Draka pondered various means to induce him to defect, until the Security Directorate got hold of some of the science-fiction novels he wrote on the side and put the kibosh on the plan on ideological grounds.

Though the space race dominated the 1950s and early 1960s, events in the Far East would prove a more immediate concern...


	18. Superhumans and Superweapons

**Superhumans and Superweapons**

By Matthew W. Quinn

The Draka had always been interested in being the best they could be-removing "unfit" Citizens from the gene pool, sending their children to militarized boarding schools that sharpened the body as well as the mind most of the year, requiring everyone to keep in shape or face a mandatory return to military service, and the like.

However, the new science of genetics provided a way to make Naldorssen's wildest dreams about the Race and its servants come true. No longer would Citizens have to sweat for every ounce of muscle or reduced second of reaction time, but they would emerge from the womb as predators and rulers, natural-born killers.

Of course, this wasn't possible right off the bat, but the Draka had lots of expendable serfs to experiment on and side projects to test their skills along the way. By the late 1950s, recombinant DNA technology was coming online and by 1965, the Draka had created DNA-engineered novelties like "steakberries," which found a niche in exports to the outside world, as well as the fierce ghouloons.

Fierce opposition to recombinant genetic research-both the influential Catholic Church, which viewed creatures created with human DNA as abominations and common folk disgusted by the atrocities the Draka committed in order to creature such wonders-stymied similar research in the United States.

In Russia, whose dominant religion tended to give the state the benefit of the doubt even when the two were formally separated, they did not have such problems. In Russia, scientists used DNA from Siberian tigers to create something equivalent to a ghouloon, albeit more inclined to quadripedalism and significantly bigger, something they called a "war cat." German scientists, faced with similar opposition at home, decided to skip over the controversial research and bribed the right Draka to get the DNA sequences of the ghouloon. They used it as a basis for their own creatures.

It was only in the 1970s, ironically during the Archonship of Eric von Shrakenberg, who was leery of such things, that the Domination felt comfortable attempting to create the Master Race of Naldorssen's visions. He gave the Eugenics Board, which was dominated by Militants he appointed to appease their bloc in the Senate, an inch and they took a mile. He figured they'd just remove the hereditary diseases that led to Citizens being institutionalized and make improvements within the normal human range. He was wrong.

By 1978, the Eugenics Board produced the first specimens of what they called "the New Race" or _Homo drakensis_. These entities were faster, stronger, and smarter than an ordinary human and incorporated DNA from tigers, hyenas, and other animals. They had built-in immunity to all known diseases at that point and a more advanced immune system, as well as some genetic tweaking that drastically slowed their aging. In order to dominate ordinary humans and the _Homo servus_ the Board planned on creating next, the _drakensis_ had the ability to control the pheromones they emitted. These new beings were purposely not interfertile with ordinary humans, to avoid creating "half-breeds" that would interfere with the board's plans for the serf population.

The Eugenics Board wanted to look into altering all Draka so that they would produce _drakenses_ when they procreated, but von Shrakenberg refused to allow this, wanting to make sure there weren't any problems that would come up when the _draksensis_ became adults.

When von Shrakenberg was forced to flee the Domination in 1985, the Militants took over and had free rein. At this point, perhaps 15% of Citizen children were _drakensis_. By the time of the Final War in 2000, this figure had risen to 40%. This was generally accomplished by male and female Draka giving sperm and ova to the geneticists, who would alter the DNA therein to _drakensis_ specifications and then create a zygote, which would be implanted in a host mother.

The Alliance already knew what the Draka planned to do with genetic-engineering technology, although it was not until fate and the Domination's internal politics dropped a former Archon in their laps that they realized just how far along the Domination had gotten. The Alliance states started shoveling money into cybernetics research, to augment soldiers to the point they could face drakensis as equals in battle, as well as to build war machines. Though the growing problems in China ate up funds, they also provided a testing ground for both sides' champions and machines, a prologue to the Final War...

While many Draka geneticists created unusual plants, unusual animals, and unusual people, others pondered how their science might be used to deal with the current geopolitical stalemate.

The Domination's advance in Europe was hemmed in by France-which was seeking an independent nuclear force of its own, something that made the Draka rather nervous-and Germany, backed by Russia. The Persian and Turkish vassal states the Russians had carved out of the Domination's right flank during the Second Great War, backed by Russian might, not only kept the Draka away from the riches of India and East Asia but also made it likely that the next war would see a march south from Turkey and west from Persia to cut off the Domination's Mesopotamian and Arabian provinces.

The Draka possessed their share of the new stars in the sky above, but the Alliance possessed just as many. The Draka knew the next war could see them hurt the Alliance for Democracy, but it would see their entire social system come crashing down. The Draka had no inclination to be killed by invading armies, impaled by their own serfs, or become pensioners of nations whose offer of mercy and employment to Draka who fell into their hands was just as much an act of gloating as an act of kindness.

So the Draka scientists created a new virus, a virus that ordinarily stayed latent unless activated by a certain radio frequency. When the frequency was triggered, the virus would attack the brain. Within hours if not minutes, the host would go violently insane.

By 1984, the Draka had perfected their secret weapon-which they called "The Stone Dogs"-and dispatched agents in the Alliance to slip it into the water supplies of major cities and military bases. If and when the Final War came, much of the enemy military-and hopefully its nuclear assets if command and control personnel were infected-could be incapacitated. Draka scientists were not sure if the radio frequencies could penetrate the shielding of the Alliance spatial assets or the deep seas that sheltered its submarines, but if much of the regular military and ground-based nuclear assets were compromised, that would whittle the problem down to size.

On the Alliance end, the Allied rulers knew that the Draka, hemmed in and with their aura of invincibility severely tarnished, were in danger both from their serfs and political instability within the Citizen caste. If the Domination lashed out, the world could suffer for it, even if the Allied military superiority assured victory.

So they devised a weapon of their own, a computer virus that would activate whenever Domination assets entered combat. Drakaweapons might detonate prematurely, their navigation systems go haywire, their atmospheres get vented into space, or any number of horrible things. Allied agents in the Domination-they didn't have as many as the Draka did within the Alliance-went about spreading what they called "the comp plague" in the early 1990s.


	19. Trouble in the Middle Kingdom

**The Dragon and the Bear: Trouble in the Middle Kingdom**

**By Matthew W. Quinn**

With the breaking of the Japanese Empire in the Second Great War, Chiang Kai-Shek emerged as the dominant power in China. As the Chinese armies advanced eastward against the crumbling Japanese, they found Maoists taking over wherever the Japanese left. Chiang contemplated a war to expel the Communists, but concluded (thanks to some prodding from President Roosevelt, who is not a sycophant like most of Chiang's inner circle) that China was not in any condition for this kind of thing.

So he and Mao met and came to an agreement similar to that of Kornilov and Kerensky 27 years ago. The two men would govern China together, with the more experienced Chiang serving as a restraining influence and as a shield against Western fears of Communism, sublimated for now due to the fear of the Draka but still present.

Unfortunately, Mao had not seen his more improbable, utopian schemes crumble before his eyes and recognize his need for help, unlike Kerensky. The unlikely coalition between the old Imperial general and the Communist bureaucrat managed to hold for the next decade as the warlords and various separatist rebellions were crushed. The fact that the fallen Empire Chiang served had a fair bit in common with Mao's Marxist ideology and there were more important issues like securing control of the country prevented an open split, at least for awhile.

The first major problem was when Mao decided the country needed to industrialize soon after the final defeat of the warlords in 1955. He proposed the country's peasants-who farmed a motley mix of private plots and proto-collective farms established under the Taiping-produce steel in backyard furnaces.

Chinag saw the danger in this and suggested rather forcefully to Mao and his Communists that the diversion of labor from agriculture be minimal due to the danger of crops not being gathered. The two argued for months about the matter, and the amount of labor each enterprise got reflected whoever's clique was dominant for the moment.

Ultimately, the combination of a more conservative Chiang-influenced Great Leap Forward and the more advanced technology of the Drakaverse prevented a total mass-famine disaster from occurring, unlike in our world. However, the industrialization effort did not produce a great deal of fruit either. Mao insisted if more labor had been put into making steel, exports would have been greater and the industrialization effort would have been self-sustaining, whereas Chiang believed this would have been disastrous.

Meanwhile, as the bad blood between the two of them grew, the high food prices and general stress produced a new millenarian movement in the countryside. They called themselves the Yellow Banners. The Chiang-Mao coalition allowed them entry into the National Assembly and that slowed their momentum, but it was not enough.

The issue of land is what first drew blood. Chiang favored keeping things as they were, with both private plots and collectivist agriculture being practiced. Mao wanted to fully collective agriculture, but Chiang prevented this from being done. The Yellow Banners decided to try to force the issue by playing on villagers' resentment of the more prosperous of the private farmers, who they tried to tar with the memory of the old Qing landlords (swept away by the Taiping) or the more recent tyranny of the warlords.

A series of riots and terrorist acts broke out in the countryside under the Yellow Banner in 1963. Mao and Chiang promptly arrested the Yellow Banner members of the Assembly on the grounds of collusion, something that was not (always) true, escalating the situation. A series of battles broke out between government troops and the Yellow Banners, who somehow found themselves in possession of large quantities of French, Russian, German, and Italian arms from the Second Great War.

Those arms were supplied by the Domination of the Draka, once more eager to cause trouble now that the Rationalist Party had lost its brief hold on power. The Draka knew they would not be able to take advantage of this groundside-a move against France, Italy, Turkey, or Persia would provoke a general war with the Alliance-but they hoped unrest in China would distract attention and funds from Alliance space efforts, enabling the Draka to catch up in the colonization of the Moon and take the lead in the colonization of Mars.

So arms captured during the Second Great War and kept in good condition in order to potentially cause problems for the Alliance later were smuggled through intermediaries in India into China. Without Draka aid, the Yellow Banners would have been crushed in weeks; instead, the Chiang-Mao coalition faced a full-blown counterinsurgency, aggravated by secessionist uprisings in Tibet and the Muslim-heavy regions to the west.

The counterinsurgency and border fighting that made up the early stages of the Chinese Civil War dragged on for several years, putting a lot of strain on everyone's health. Chiang died in 1972 and Mao died in 1973. Mao had refrained from making any radical moves due to the ongoing political crisis, but his successors lacked his judgment. They attempted to purge the pro-Chiang elements of the government, which had prepared for this eventuality and fought back. What was primarily a counterinsurgency against the Yellow Banners and ethnic separatists in the west devolved into a set-piece war in the east.

The leaders of the Alliance for Democracy were initially confused as to who to support, since both factions in the eastern part of the war were members of the pro-Alliance government and both beseeched the Alliance for recognition and aid. Eventually, the Alliance recognized Chiang's faction (which became known as the Nationalists) and began supplying monies and arms, including some early-model unmanned aerial combat vehicles and cybernetic augmentation for Nationalist soldiers.

This enabled the Nationalists to make large-scale gains against the ethnic separatists, the weakest of the regime's enemies. The Xinjiang was fully pacified relatively quickly, although Tibet took more time due to the weather and the terrain. The Nationalists then went on a large-scale offensive against both the Maoists and the Yellow Banners, occupying the agricultural regions and breaking up the collective farms into numerous private plots.

The Draka upped their aid to the Yellow Banners and proposed help to the Maoists. The Maoists recognized the Draka as the power behind the Yellow Banners and the ethnic separatists and initially refused to deal with them, but a series of defeats at Nationalist hands forced them to change their minds. The Maoists accepted shipments of juvenile ghouloons and advanced small arms, as well as services ofDraka who were ostensibly mercenaries.

This enabled the Maoists to defeat what would have been the final offensive against their strongholds, but it was not enough to turn the tide in their favor. In fact, it actively provoked the Alliance as a whole to take measures against the Maoists and the Draka:

* Space assets began to be used in various small ways to help the Nationalists. Orbital lasers were used to dazzle Maoist pilots, causing them to crash their planes or lose dogfights to Nationalist enemies. This took assets away from defense against Draka shenanigans, but not to the degree the Draka hoped. Alliance expeditions to Mars were delayed, but not enough for the Draka to beat them to the punch in unsettled areas.

* The Alliance began removing the roadblocks against the French and Italian nuclear programs, which they had justified by pointing out the possibility of the two states launching a war against the Domination on their own. In the past, Alliance nations refused to sell them uranium, bribed away key scientists, etc. Not anymore. The two states' efforts surged ahead and in 1974, the year of the Draka Archonal elections, the French tested a nuclear bomb of their own.

The "blowback" from their meddling in China hurt the Draka League politically at a time when Eric von Shrakenberg was the Rationalist Party's great rising star. The Militants took the support of those who thought Draka policy too cautious (for example, the Militants openly proposed a "No Peace Beyond Luna" policy to weaken Alliance settlement of Mars and the asteroids), weakening the Draka League further.

In 1974, Eric von Shrakenberg became the youngest Archon in the history of the Domination and the second Rationalist. He immediately terminated Draka support to the Maoists, leading to their defeat in 1978.


	20. The Reign of von Shrakenberg

**The Rule of von Shrakenberg**

By Matthew W. Quinn

When Eric von Shrakenberg assumed the Archonship in 1974, the Domination's primary problem was not in terms of foreign policy-the French, even with nukes, were unlikely to start a war they could not win-but economic.

Howcroft's reforms in the early 1950s may have prevented the fall of the Domination in the dark days after the Second Great War by ensuring more jobs, particularly sensitive ones, remained in Citizen hands, but the small size of the Citizen population was beginning to cause problems. There simply weren't enough Citizen hands to do all the work a modern industrial economy required, plus the higher wages paid for Citizens to do "serf work" made Draka-made products-often subject to boycotts or tariffs anyway due to the international disdain for their social system-less competitive in the world markets.

Though the Militants, most of the Draka League, and even some less-ideological Rationalists advocated continuing to meddle in China-if anything, to keep them from competing with the Draka in world markets-von Shrakenberg recognized that this would risk provoking a war against the Domination, which would not be able to defeat the Alliance with the Stone Dogs' spread insufficient and the Alliance's numerical advantage.

To avoid the short-term threat of a premature Final War, he terminated the aid to the Maoists and managed to reduce Draka aid to the Polish nationalists-a sacred cow for the dispossessed Draka still smarting from the loss of their Afghan, Persian, south Bulgarian, and Anatolian homes-a bit.

He decided to deal with the economic problem with a two-pronged approach.

The first approach was a short-run proposal to remove certain occupations from the Citizen-only list, something that appealed to the Rationalists' Draka League opponents and to the free-market Liberals. This ran into opposition from the free employees' Guilds, which did not want their members to have to compete with serf labor, as well as the dispossessed. The postwar reforms meant there were plenty of jobs for the refugees from the Russian conquests in the Near East, a cushion that would be removed if these reforms passed.

Due to the opposition, relatively few jobs were removed from the Citizen-only list. The problem was eased, but not eliminated.

The second approach was to expand the Citizen population in the long run. Incentives for immigration were increased, and the expanded availability of "brooder" surrogate mothers made it relatively easy to push for Citizen couples to have five rather than the customary four children.

However, the fruits of the increased Citizen growth rate would take decades to come in, and the reduced "cushion" of Citizen-only jobs might not be able to accommodate them. And there were few willing to emigrate to the Domination due to the rapid economic growth in even the most backward Alliance nations brought about by the expansion into space.

So von Shrakenberg made his most controversial proposal of all-adding to the Citizen caste from the serf population. Many of Eric von Shrakenberg's political advisors told him to wait until after the 1981 election to make his case for recruiting serfs as Citizens, but von Shrakenberg felt it would not be fair to the electorate to try to pull a "fast one" on them.

However, they were able to prevail on him to propose his least radical variant of the plan first and save the rest for later. After all, they reasoned, once the first step had been taken, subsequent ones would be logical and the Citizens should know what to expect.

So in 1979, von Shrakenberg proposed that all children born after 1980 to Citizen fathers and serf mothers who were "racially appropriate" (i.e. white) be granted Citizenship at birth.

He said there were many Citizens with French ancestry, so making Draka of half-Draka European serfs would not be too difficult. And though there were few Spanish in the Draka gene pool, the French and Spanish were both born of Roman and German bloodlines. North Africa was settled by Vandals at one point and there were parts of Algeria where lighter skin was the norm (due to lots of European slaves and "renegades" adding to the gene pool there during the time of the Corsairs), so even making new Citizens there was not out of the question.

This proposal, however small, roused the rage of the Militant faction and swelled their ranks with members of the Draka League and even a few Rationalists who thought it went too far. Some made the claim that he wanted the law passed so his exiled serf-born daughter Anna von Shrakenberg could visit the Domination and not be dragged off to a labor camp as a runaway as soon as she got off the plane. Von Shrakenberg pointed out the 1980 deadline, but that did not silence the gossips.

Others raised the specter of divided loyalties. After all, there was at least one case of a Citizen who had defected when he decided the serfs who raised him when his widowed father was at work were more deserving of loyalty than the State. Tens of thousands of Citizens with serf mothers would be an even bigger problem.

(The positive side of this would be that it would be possible to suborn the LeFarge twins with promises of Citizenship. Therese LeFarge was an important scientist in the French nuclear program, while Edgar LeFarge was a rising star in the French military. However, in addition to the 1980 deadline, there was also the issue that hell would freeze over before either of them would defect.)

The law failed its first reading and only von Shrakenberg's persistence-and another drop in exports brought about by the return of cheap Chinese goods to the world marketplace-enabled it to pass on the second reading.

1981 came and went and von Shrakenberg was re-elected, albeit at probably the closest electoral margin in the history of the Domination. The sheer volume of half-Draka bastards-even with modern advances in birth control and many conservative Citizens being more careful than usual to avoid having to deal with the issue themselves-meant in 20 years, there would be enough Citizens to maintain and even expand the Domination's economy.

However, that was in 20 years. The Domination's economy was still weakened by the high prices of its finished industrial goods, plus increased spatial imports caused the fall in prices in the minerals that had made the Domination possible in the first place.

So von Shrakenberg pushed to expand the list of serf-available jobs, a change that would expire in 20 years when the enlarged wave of Citizens would be available to take them. The free-employees Guilds were divided on the issue, but when the opposition of many of them was combined with the people who disliked von Shrakenberg already over the serf-children issue, the measure did not pass.

In 1985, von Shrakenberg made another proposal. He proposed that Janissaries with 20 years of service, again of the appropriate race, be given Metic Citizenship upon retirement. He pointed out with the relaxation of the Race Purity Laws, Citizen women had been availing themselves of male serfs, so former Janissaries would not lack for interested women to father Draka children with. Furthermore, these new Citizens would likely fill many Citizen-only jobs immediately, as opposed to 20 years from now.

This was altogether too much for the Militants and a lot of other Citizens besides. Under the leadership of Militant stalwart Louise Gaynor-whose brother had been killed by von Shrakenberg personally in southern France during the Second Great War-the Militants began actively plotting to remove him from office. There was an impeachment provision in the Domination's constitution, as well as a provision to expel the offender from the Senate too.

Gaynor got very excited over that last part. Draka custom forbade challenging a sitting Archon to a duel-so getting rid of von Shrakenberg that way was out. However, if he were removed from the Archonship and then expelled from the Senate, he would lose Senatorial immunity. Then the Security Directorate-which was crawling with Militants-could get him on charges of "thoughts or actions prejudicial to the security of the state." One in-custody accident or "attempt to escape" and she would have avenged her brother's death and disposed of a man who she viewed would destroy the Domination from within.

So the Militants set out to gather dirt. He'd not been in contact with Anna von Shrakenberg, so they could not accuse him of supplying the enemy with intelligence. He had not engaged in any duels, so they could not accuse him of cheating. Nobody had ever been hurt or killed in hunting accidents in his company, so no joy there.

Eventually, Gaynor decided to pressure every surviving member of von Shrakenberg's unit who would have witnessed her brother's death. Bribes, blackmail, threats. Unfortunately, many of von Shrakenberg's brothers-in-arms had died during the war and others owed their positions or lives to him, so finding someone willing to make the formal accusation that von Shrakenberg had two Citizens killed was hard.

However, there was one man, retired Arch-Strategos Covington, who was willing to talk. He already resented von Shrakenberg on class grounds and he didn't approve of some of von Shrakenberg's actions in the Pyrenees, which he viewed as arming potentially dangerous serfs and French Resistance they had to fight later. He also roundly disliked von Shrakenberg's Citizenship proposals, especially giving "jungleboys" Citizenship.

However, he'd figured out Security would be after him if von Shrakenberg went down, since he'd participated in the killings himself. The Security Directorate reassured him that regardless of what happened, he was safe. Only von Shrakenberg would go down for this. After all, it was bullets from the type of gun he carried that killed Gaynor's brother.

So Coemer formally accused von Shrakenberg of murder and treason before the full Assembly in 1985...


	21. The Fall of von Shrakenberg

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Fall of von Shrakenberg**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Per the Domination's constitution, it required a majority of the Assembly to vote to impeach the Archon, followed by a trial by the Draka Senate. If the Draka were told how much this resembled the American procedure, they would be mightily upset.

His political enemies pounced. Many of them did not care about his guilt or innocence-they wanted this radical stopped, and stopped immediately. Every Militant, three-quarters of the Draka League, and even one-third of the Rationalists voted to have the charges heard by the Senate.

The Senate hearings began in March of 1985. Eric admitted what he had done when under question, but pointed out that the Security Directorate's planned arrest was illegal in the first place. Had he submitted to the arrest in hopes of getting a proper hearing on the matter, it was likely he would not live much longer than it took to get him out of the sight of his troops. Furthermore, he had the life of the American reporter to consider as well, and the suspicious death of an American could jeopardize the alliance.

The Security Directorate knew this. They focused primarily on the assistance given to the French Resistance fighters who had helped defeat the Germans in the area. In particular, some of the fighters who participated that day were later captured bearing arms against Draka soldiers later on. Eric pointed out that there was no way of knowing that this would happen-the Russian acceptance of the German volte face had not on the Domination's radar screen at the time.

As the trial dragged on into the summer, Eric made plans of his own. He knew if he were found guilty, the Security Directorate would be outside his office door and all over Oakenwald within ten minutes. He suspected this was a show trial and he would be convicted by his enemies, not for what he did in 1942, but for his proposals in regards to enfranchising serfs. Though he was a strong believer in the rule of law, he was not about to let Gaynor get the best of him.

So he recruited allies in the communications department, to cut off communications from the chambers while false orders went out to the Citizen units stationed near Archona, units commanded by men who owed him their positions. The command would be to storm the centers of government, particularly Skull House, and kill or detain all of the Security leaders and chief members of the Militants. Preferably kill-prisoners could always be released. The rationale was that Security, outraged that the Senate had voted against convicting him, had staged a coup and were attempting to kill the Archon. The whole plan was based on the Germans' "Operation Valkyrie," which was not a bad plan if Von Shrakenberg thought so himself.

In the event the coup failed, Eric had other plans. He had a private scramjet with a pre-plotted flight path to a Russian scientific site in Antarctica. His immediate family would be on the scramjet, ready to flee the Domination and seek asylum in the Alliance, if things went wrong. Eric himself would stay in the Archon's office, his desk wired with explosives. If the plan unraveled, he suspected Gaynor would come for him personally and he intended to bring her down with him.

On June 2nd, 1985, the Senate voted to acquit him of murder but convict him of treason. He was removed as Archon and, soon afterward, expelled from the Senate as well.

Eric's allies in the communications department made their move, but Security had anticipated something like Valkyrie. A brawl broke out in the communications office and contradictory orders went out. Some Citizen units obeyed, seizing control of Security Directorate sites and executing the officers they captured, while others sat tight and awaited confirmation. Skull House itself managed to fight off the attackers, since not all the of the Citizen elements ordered to attack it did so.

Meanwhile, Eric waited in his office with his personal staff. Some of them begged him to head for the scramjet and flee, but he refused. If they thought he were aboard the scramjet, they would do whatever it took to bring it down, but if they thought he was dead in his office, they might assume it was just his family and allow it to escape.

Just then, the Eric's longtime steward Julius took matters into his own hands. He knocked Eric unconscious-an attack from a loyal serf was not anticipated-and had him bundled into the scramjet with orders to launch when the explosion occurs. He then takes the Archon's chair himself and waits.

Eventually, order is restored and the real orders go out. A detachment of Security Directorate goons, led by Louise Gaynor herself, invade the Archon's office. They point their guns at the desk and order Von Shrakenberg to get up.

The steward turns around. Louise Gaynor has just enough time to realize she's been had before Julius-who was aware of the nature of Eric's backup plan-sets off the explosives. In the resulting inferno, Julius, Louise Gaynor, and twenty Security troops are killed. The scramjet launches.

Thomas Gaynor, Louise's last surviving brother and one of the leading Militants, sees the scramjet heading for Antarctica and orders it brought down at all costs. Mournblade, the newest orbital battle-station, brings its guns to bear on the scramjet as it crosses over the ocean, heading for the Russian station.

Then the station self-destructs, the Alliance comp-plague seizing control when the station was ordered to fire. Other orbital assets do function and fire on the scramjet, mortally wounding it.

The scramjet crashes near the Russian station. The Alliance, seeing the mayhem in order, goes on full alert and rushes troops down from Freedom One, the great battle-station floating above New York City, in fifteen minutes.

According to the official reports, Eric died in the crash, while the remainder of his family survived. The new Militant leadership of the Domination, already in disarray due to the loss of one of its major leaders in the aftermath of the first Archon removed from office and the first attempted military coup in the history of the Domination, falls for it.

Unfortunately for the Domination, Eric survived...


	22. Treason and Antimatter

**The Dragon and the Bear: Treason and Antimatter**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Under the tightest security imaginable, the former Archon and his family were taken to an OSS facility in the Rocky Mountains. Sofie, Karl Jr., and their other children were permitted to leave after several weeks-though they would always be closely watched, ostensibly for their own protection from Draka agents in the US-while Eric remained hidden.

He was thoroughly debriefed, using the most advanced technological means to ensure he was not lying. The Alliance leaders, rushed to what was supposed to be an emergency meeting to discuss the coup in Colorado Springs, were horrified when they learned about _Homo drakensis_ and the planned _Homo servus_.

They were even more horrified when they learned about the Stone Dogs. Getting this out of Eric proved difficult-it was only after much assurance that the Alliance would not launch a first-strike that he revealed the nature of the program. He was not aware of the technical details of how the virus operated, but he was aware of its basic means of transmission. To avoid tipping off the Draka agents who'd contaminated the water supply, sampling disguised as routine is ordered. Once the Stone Dogs is identified, the yearly military physicals will be moved up and everyone tested. Those in sensitive positions who've got it will be rotated out and replaced with those who don't.

Meanwhile, in the Domination, Thomas Gaynor is formally elected Archon. He orders the commanders of the Citizen units that obeyed the coup orders tried for treason. Many are acquitted-after all, they thought these were legal orders-but others, particularly those with von Shrakenberg connections, were found guilty and shot on the steps of the Archonal Palace.

The new Militant-controlled government begins a purge of all Rationalists from the government, replacing them with Militants or sufficiently-pliable Draka League members. All discussion of enfranchising the Janissaries is shelved. Gaynor nearly orders all serf-born Citizen children killed and no further enfranchising be allowed, but he is persuaded not to. Instead, he orders a rapid increase in the speciation efforts-bastard children of Draka will not be a problem when the masters and their slaves are no longer interfertile. Plus, he's smart enough to recognize the "Citizen manpower crunch" problem too.

On the foreign-policy front, the Domination looks to find every conceivable group with a grievance anywhere in the Alliance for Democracy and offers money, arms, and even Citizen "volunteers." Aid to anti-Russian Polish terrorists is increased rapidly and contacts are renewed with the last dregs of the Yellow Banners, Tibetan and Uighur separatists, and the Maoists. Gaynor orders contacts made with anti-Alliance elements in India who fear the continued Westernization of their country and Mao-inspired left-wing terrorists in Latin America.

In space, Gaynor grants more and more initiative to local commanders operating beyond Luna, with broad hints that they find excuses to cause trouble. Over the next few years, a series of clashes break out on the surface of Mars, in the asteroid field, and on the way to and fro.

The Alliance leadership is divided on how to deal with this. The Americans favor a cautious approach, tolerating Draka trouble up unto a point until the comp-plague reaches the proper level of saturation and the Stone Dogs is fully purged from the military. The Russians and Germans, however, push for a hard line-if the Draka aren't put in their place, they're going to keep pushing until war breaks out at a time of their choosing, before the Alliance is ready.

In 1986, the Stone Dogs is finally cultured in Alliance laboratory and all military personnel are tested. The results are quite scary-a full third of the entire Alliance military has the virus, with several people in vital command/control positions infected. Those people are immediately replaced with uninfected personnel, while substantial effort is put forth to curing infected personnel before the balloon goes up.

In 1987, things nearly come to a head when a Draka heavy cruiser is destroyed near Ceres, the capital of the Alliance territories in the Belt. The American President Carmen Hiero arranges for a holographic conference with Gaynor and tells him that the Draka's continuing behavior is unacceptable. Gaynor makes the usual excuses about decentralized command, but Hiero tells him that further shenanigans will not be tolerated and, furthermore, the Alliance knows about the Stone Dogs.

Still unaware that the source of this information is none other than Eric von Shrakenberg, Gaynor starts purging again. Several top scientists lose their clearances and jobs, while some are even imprisoned on small charges. He's confident that, although the Alliance is aware of something called the Stone Dogs, they don't know just what it is.

In 1990, a Russian scientist operating on the Russian station _Dezful_ makes a critical breakthrough on harnessing antimatter. Work begins on a prototype antimatter-pulse-propulsion drive, as well as on antimatter munitions. The Domination immediately focuses all its espionage efforts on antimatter, diverting efforts that could have otherwise discovered the nature of the comp-plague or the fact that Eric von Shrakenberg is still alive.


	23. Who Strikes First?

**The Dragon and the Bear: Who Strikes First?**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As the 1990s dawned, the cities founded on the Moon in the 1960s had swelled in population to the point that they became full members of the Alliance themselves. Meanwhile, in a display of amity surprising for a Militant, Gaynor and Hiero signed a treaty pledging cooperation in the terraforming of Mars. All terraforming equipment was to be kept away from the settlements and in the event of war, neither side would fire on it.

However, come 1995, the first cohort of _Homo drakensis_ was ready for military service. The New Race quickly outshone their human kindred in military tasks, with physical prowess and reaction times many times better than even the most hardened Draka. The Militants smiled-in the event of war, both sides expected nuclear weapons to claim most of their ground forces, but in the post-nuclear phase of the combat, the New Race would be able to dominate the battered Alliance survivors.

Meanwhile, Draka genetics researchers were hard at work on the creation of paravirii that would modify the genetic structure of the host's reproductive system. This would mean that infected serfs would give birth to _Homo servus_, while infected Citizens would give birth to _Homo drakensis_.

In the rebuilt Archon's office, Gaynor smiled. Von Shrakenberg might have thought himself a great liberator, bringing freedom to Citizens' bastards, but there would be fewer and fewer of them as the paravirii spread. The current generation of human Draka would be the last generation, and then Naldorssen's vision of a Master Race would be complete.

There was, however, the small problem of the Alliance. More and more nuclear weapons had been replaced by orbital kinetic projectiles and more and more orbital kinetic projectiles had been replaced by antimatter. The Domination had antimatter weapons of its own, but far fewer than the Alliance and far less versatile. Though Gaynor suspected the Stone Dogs would incapacitate the Alliance command and control and ensure the Draka would get the drop on the Alliance ships armed with antimatter-those were number one priority targets-any surviving antimatter munitions would do grievous damage to the Domination.

Gaynor began assembling an elite flotilla of the best ships the Domination had to offer and ordered them armed with antimatter weapons. This fleet would be the Domination's sword for the coming Final War, a war that would come as soon as the Stone Dogs reached saturation levels and the antimatter-armed war fleet was ready.

Meanwhile, in the Alliance halls of power, the national leaders gathered to discuss what to do when the comp-plague reached the saturation levels needed to cripple the Domination's military.

The French and Italians, as was predictable, pushed for a first-strike as soon as possible. The British hung back. They believed the violence in Archona signified the beginnings of an internal breakdown in the Domination. If the Militants lost an election but refused to give up power, a civil war could break out and the comp-plague would be activated, destroying most of the Draka military without an Alliance shot being fired or an Alliance city dying in nuclear fire.

The leadership of the United States leaned towards the British position-the peacenik movement is stronger with a weaker Domination, plus Hiero made promises to von Shrakenberg, promises she is loath to break. Furthermore, though the Stone Dogs has been contained and a prototype vaccine created, it has still not been cured. Much of the Alliance military is still infected and vulnerable, even if the command and control elements are free of the virus. All of the C3 personnel have been drinking bottled water for the last several years, just to be on the safe side, and been regularly tested.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, threw the weight of Russia behind the first strike option. If the Domination began experiencing internal problems, the Militants might attempt for a short, victorious war to unite the Citizen body. Every day they wait means more _Homo drakensis_ troops for the Domination's army, which would make combat groundside all the harder. Furthermore, if the Alliance fires first, the Domination might not even be able to activate the Stone Dogs.

Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan throw their votes behind the Russians. Germany remains neutral, for the present. The end result is a slim majority in favor of a first-strike. The weight of the opposition, however, is such that the strike will be delayed until the number of Stone Dogs affected military personnel is reduced to an acceptable level and the comp-plague is fully spread.

Based on those parameters, Operation Dragonslayer is slated for October of 2000, giving the Alliance three years to prepare. The Domination, however, may not wait for them...


	24. The Final War

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Final War**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As 1999 moved into 2000, the comp-plague reached the level of saturation the Alliance for Democracy believed sufficient to launch a nuclear first-strike. Meanwhile, the Domination's antimatter-armed elite fleet was ready for war.

It ultimately came down to personalities-which side's leader would see the opportunity and go for it?

Ultimately, it was the Domination of the Draka that struck first, in June of 2000. The entire Russian spatial fleet was already armed with antimatter munitions and now it was the American fleet's turn. Gaynor believed the Stone Dogs would neutralize three-quarters of the combined Alliance space presence and the Draka could mop up the rest, but if a significant percentage of the Alliance fleet was armed with antimatter, the surviving quarter could defeat the Domination's elite force and even do significant damage to the Domination planetside.

Gaynor waited until around a quarter of the American fleet was being rearmed, then began evacuating the cities and plantations and activated the Stone Dogs.

The Alliance, however, opened fire on the satellite constellations producing the Stone Dogs' activation signal, destroying them within twenty minutes. There were isolated outbreaks of madness and violence in the Alliance fleet, including a scary moment where it seemed Freedom One would go offline, but ultimately the Alliance military was saved.

The Draka, however, were not saved from the comp-plague. When the elite "Sword of the Dragon" flotilla went to war-footing, three of the ships immediately self-destructed, taking three other ships with them due to the volatility of their weapons. The comp-cores were blown on two more, saving them from destruction but at the same time limiting them only to defensive actions.

All across Domination space, the comp-plague scourged the Draka fleet. 25% of the ships died seconds after reaching war footing, while another 50% had to blow their computer cores. A full 50% of the Domination's orbital battlestations died immediately.

The Alliance fleet swung into action from the asteroid belt inward. Another Domination assault on Ceres-the Draka gambled on their aggression despite their losses-was broken, although the Alliance command center was badly damaged in the process. Nova Virconium was broken open like an eggshell and over 100,000 serfs and 20,000 Citizens were killed, with the 20,000 Citizen and 20,000 serf survivors hiding down in their tunnels and awaiting the inevitable Alliance ground invasion.

Skirmishes broke out on Mars, but the Draka commander there, chosen because he was the careful sort not likely to risk the fragile terraforming apparatus, asked for a cease-fire as soon as he saw the Domination battlestations overhead exploding without a shot being fired. This he got, though the Alliance did not occupy the Domination's holdings on the Red Planet until the battered Alliance belter fleet moved into orbit and made sure they had no other choice.

The Alliance decided to take no chances and dropped an enormous antimatter bomb on Archona. Two-thirds of the city's 12 million people died instantly and the beating heart of the Domination's war industry was ripped out. Unfortunately, Gaynor had retreated to his family's plantation in Angola and the backup command center he had built there. The Draka C3 was battered, but it held. Meanwhile, the Alliance attacked military and industrial targets all over the Domination from orbit and from the ground. Draka and serf losses were large, but they had already largely evacuated by the time the fighting began.

The Draka were not without their successes...

The "Sword of the Dragon" managed to bring down Freedom One and drop antimatter bombs of their own on the Alliance capital. Sofie Nixon, who lived in New York City when not visiting her husband at the OSS compound at Telluride, died in the assault. Karl Jr. and the children, being elsewhere at the time, survived.

Other elements of the "Sword of the Dragon" went after the Alliance nations in Europe. Berlin, Paris, and London burned, but St. Petersburg survived after a heroic effort in space and other ground destroyed the European flotilla to the last man.

On the ground, Draka units surged forward from their start lines below Lake Geneva in France and below Rome. Rome fell to the Dragon once more, and this time there was looting and raping to be had in plenty. The French managed to hold out around their mangled capital, using the fruit of their nuclear program vigorously, but leading Draka elements reached the coast of Normandy and even shelled English positions for good measure.

In the east, Draka armies poured out of the Taurus passes and across the Shatt-al-Arab into the provinces taken from them by the Russians, only to be met with fanatical Turkish, Persian, and Russian resistance backed by masses of tactical nuclear weapons. The Draka were driven back to their start lines but held out their, their waves of ghouloons exhausting enemy troops and the elite _Homo drakensis_ killing 10 for every one.

On Luna, Brittania and New Edo suffered antimatter hits to their domes, killing 50,000 Alliance citizens combined. Most of the population survived in the tunnels.

Within a week, the Alliance military was triumphant in space. The Alliance spacecraft and battlestations set themselves to hunting for Draka submarines-including the one that totaled Newport News and even brought down another battlestation with a ground-to-orbit antimatter missile-while doing what they could to provide orbital fire support for Alliance armies on the ground grappling with Draka troops. By April of 2001, the Domination's armies had been forced back beyond their pre-war borders and their strategic nuclear capability had been reduced to nil, although the price the Snakes extracted was enormous.

Now, al that was left was the ground invasion of the Domination's holdings on Earth and the Moon and the final slaying of the Dragon.


	25. The Liberation Begins

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Liberation Begins**

By Matthew W. Quinn

The second phase of Operation Dragonslayer began in May of 2001. Supported by massive orbital kinetic bombardment-as the environmental problems mounted, the Alliance made the same decision Eric Von Shrakenberg did in the canon timeline-Turkish and Russian troops forced the Taurus passes, liberating Antakya, Al Ladhiqiyah, and Aleppo. At the same time, troops dropped from orbit seized Cyprus and other Mediterranean islands controlled by the Domination since the defeat of Napoleon.

At the same time, Russian and Turkish armies marched southward along the Tigris, liberating Kurdistan. The armies besieged Mosul while moving southward towards Baghdad. At Baqubah, the Draka attempted a stand when the cloud cover interfered with orbital bombardment. The fighting lasted until the skies cleared and the Alliance orbital hammer could fall once more. It was a brutal fight-in addition to small numbers of fully-trained _Homo drakensis_ soldiers, many younger _drakenses_ from the cities and plantations joined the main army. Even the youths were lethal-a twelve-year-old literally tore a Russian soldier's arm off with her bare hands and took five bullets to kill. Very few were taken alive and most of them were children or even infants.

Meanwhile, Persian and Russian units crossed the Shatt-al-Arab and besieged Basra and Kuwait City. Another Perso-Russian force began marching up the Euphrates, liberating plantations there in a manner reminiscent of Sherman's march to the sea. Najaf fell at the same time as Basra and Kuwait City, leaving most of the Draka's Mesopotamian province in Alliance hands.

The Draka army, pocketed in Baghdad and the western deserts, was soon on the receiving end of a punishing orbital bombardment. It was not until every known Domination aircraft and tank had been destroyed that the Alliance armies moved. All of Mesopotamia was free by July 2001, though the fall of Baghdad took a terrible toll on the Allied armies.

In Europe, the long-awaited liberation of southern France began. French and Italian troops surged forward, backed by Germans and Russians. A French army marched down the Rhone, taking Lyon and Villeurbanne by storm. Another French army moved southward along the western coast, liberating Bordeaux before turning southward to threaten Toulouse. All across France, serfs who'd been taught their nation's history in secret by the older people who survived the war revolted. Though enormous numbers of rebellious serfs were killed-a single _drakensis_ could dominate a much larger number of ordinary serfs-the Alliance supported these revolts with air and orbital attack when they could. The Draka lost control of the Central Massif, with waves of Citizen refugees and loyal serfs retreating towards the Pyrenees. Marseilles fell in late July, while Toulon, jointly besieged by French and Italian armies, fell in early August.

As the Draka fell back on the Pyrenees, the Alliance made sure they could not escape. The passes were kept under heavy bombardment from space, trapping the Draka in the cities along the northern border. The Gascogne campaign would be a particularly brutal slog that would not end until early September.

The Italians began their campaign by an enormous and space drop on Sicily, greatly reducing the Domination's ability to supply southern Italy from North Africa. Sicily fell quickly and Italian troops used it as a springboard to land in southern Italy, moving north to meet the Italian armies moving south from the liberation of Rome. The last Draka holdouts in Italy were destroyed by the end of September. Yolande Ingolffson and Mwyfany Venders died fighting back-to-back in the ruins of their plantation, provoking grudging admiration from the Italian troops responsible.

Meanwhile, the Allied powers of the Western Hemisphere launched a particularly daring move-an air-space-sea invasion of West Africa. American, Brazilian, Argentine, and Grand Colombian troops land in what used to be Liberia, a colony for freed slaves overrun by the Draka soon after its foundation, with other landings elsewhere. A liberated zone is established from the Gambia to the Sassandra River, with Draka attempts to push the Alliance back into the sea thwarted by orbital bombardment. Plans are made for Alliance troops to force their way inward along the Niger and other river valleys.

An attempt to immediately land in Angola near Luanda, however, was beaten off despite Allied aerial and spatial supremacy. This was accomplished by the gratuitous use of antimatter and nuclear munitions, particularly mines and artillery that could not be shot down by orbital projectiles. This landing prompted the first slave revolts in the region in centuries, revolts that were brutally put down but tied up resources anyway.

Not to be outdone, the Russians launched a similar campaign of their own. They leapfrogged all of the sparsely-populated Arabian interior to land along the Indian Ocean coast, relying on units from India (which had already fought off a Draka incursion launched from Ceylon and liberated the island) to keep them supplied. What would be Oman and Yemen in our world fell quickly, with Draka units destroyed in the open desert from the air or from space. Some Draka retreated into the hill country and waged sporadic attacks from there. Russian troops began raising an all-Muslim army for a campaign up the Hejaz to liberate the Islamic Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. The ultimate goal of this army would be to link up with Russian and Turkish forces moving southward from Syria somewhere in Palestine for a massive push against the Suez Canal. This campaign began in October and by November, Mecca and Medina had been liberated.

The Russians began using southern Arabia as a base to menace the East African coast, the first foreign threat there for centuries. Landings were made along the coasts of our world's Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. These coastal territories quickly fell under Russian control, though the Draka continued to hold out in the highlands. Serf escapes from the plantations in the region, however, were enormous-a modern-day Exodus was taking place toward the Russian-occupied regions of the coast. The Draka wasted artillery shelling the escapees, artillery that was soon targeted and destroyed from orbit.

By the end of 2001, the Draka outside of Africa have been reduced to Spain, Syria/Lebanon/Palestine, and the northern half of the Hejaz. Chunks of western and eastern Africa are under Alliance control, but the cost has been so huge that Alliance operations have had to slow down, particularly since the use of large numbers of nuclear and antimatter weapons are affecting the climate.

Despite these losses, the Draka are far from beaten. New armies of ghouloons are being raised in various hidden facilities, while more and more _drakenses_ are being called to the colors at younger and younger ages. In his Angolan lair, Gaynor decides that if the Domination will fall, it will be the bloodiest conquest in the history of mankind. For a moment, he wishes he'd given his approval to Fenris, a superbomb that could theoretically crack the Earth's crush open. Dropping that one on the New Madrid fault line in North America could win the Domination the war, even at this stage.


	26. War In Space and Land

**The Dragon and the Bear: War in Space and Land**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As the Alliance troops tore into the Domination earthside, the war continued in space.

On the lunar surface, Russian troops with their war-cats and German troops with their ghouloon-knockoffs descend into the tunnels of Nova Virconium and other Draka cities to finish them off. It's a brutal fight that sees enormous numbers of Alliance casualties, but eventually the Yoke is broken forever on the Moon. The last battles are fought in June of 2001.

On Mars, elements of the Alliance fleet in the asteroid belt are brought into Martian orbit to make it clear to the Draka commanders groundside that this is a fight they will not win. The Draka general, who has maintained a cease-fire since the destruction of virtually all Domination orbital assets short-circuited his planned offensive, surrenders. The general is no coward-he uses Draka advances in biotechnology, particularly those vital to the terraforming effort, as bargaining chips to ensure the personal safety/security of all Draka on Mars being included in the surrender terms.

Unfortunately, not all elements of the army honor the surrender, particularly the _drakenses_ who, in addition to their inborn aggression, suspect that they're going to be killed out of hand as non-human when they go into captivity, the surrender treaty be damned. Several of the Draka's domed cities declare they intend to fight. The Alliance forces immediately move to occupy the Draka cities that have honored the surrender, freeing all serfs and interning all active-duty military personnel. Any captured adult or teen _drakenses_-they're aren't that many, due to their preference to go down swinging-are interned separately and closely watched, pending a final decision on what to do with them. Children are left, for the present, with their Draka parents-they're not old enough to cause trouble.

Then it comes time to make war on the elements of the Draka army that are intent on fighting. Orbital bombardment is used to crack the domes, followed by tunnel warfare similar to that taking place on Luna. By the end of July 2001, Mars is secure at a cost of 50,000 Alliance dead, 150,000 dead serfs, and 10,000 dead Citizens.

In the asteroid belt, the remnants of the Draka fleet that attempted to destroy Ceres have regrouped and have begun waging a hit-and-run campaign. The Alliance fleet eventually succeeds by dint of destroying almost every single inhabited Draka outpost in the belt to deny the Draka bases for resupplying and refueling, while building up heavy defenses on their own colonies in order to ensure no raiding for supplies takes place. The belt is not brought under full alliance control until October 2001 due to the prevalence of supply caches stashed on uninhabited asteroids by the Draka.

However, the growing ecological problems earthside—there is a nuclear winter, although it's worst in the Domination's territories-lead to the spaceborne Alliance forces having to play a major role in keeping the groundside nations supplied. The domes are rebuilt as quickly as possible and dedicated entirely to agriculture, to replace imports and even export food to Earth. New agricultural facilities are built as fast as possible, putting pretty much everyone not needed for military purposes to work. Water and other vital elements are gathered from the asteroid field and from the gas giants and/or their moons. After awhile, even trusted _drakenses_ are put to work-imprisoned, they're just eating up scarce food and required manpower to guard. It's made abundantly clear that their conduct will help determine the fate of their entire species when the war is over.

It is this lifeline of supplies from space that will enable the Alliance to resume the offensive against the Domination in early 2002.

As that year dawned, the Draka (on Earth) found themselves in an unenviable position. In Europe, they had been reduced to Spain, while most of their trans-Suez provinces were lost or in imminent danger of being lost. Sizable chunks of western and eastern Africa had been occupied by the Alliance armies. More and more serfs fled to these enclaves every day, and efforts to stem the flood with the degree of force the Draka would approve of-aerial and artillery bombardment-tended to attract Alliance response from space.

So the Domination fell back on more subtle methods. The younger generation of _drakenses_ was deployed with ghouloons to hunt fleeing serfs, to prepare them for the war they more than likely would be fighting themselves as the war eroded the older, more human generations of Citizens.

This the _drakenses_ found themselves quite good at, since they were essentially bred to prey on _Homo sapiens_ like _Homo sapiens_ preyed on lesser animals. Losses on these missions tended to be low, as quick-moving _drakensis_/ghouloon squads did not attract orbital attention and the serfs themselves were largely unarmed and untrained. Plus it means food for the ghouloons and even the _drakensis_, who, since the serfs are not their species, don't have the same issues with eating them as a human-Draka would. This did not eliminate the escaping-serf problem, particularly in regions where the New Race and ghouloons were thin on the ground, but it reduced it.

Unfortunately, keeping the serfs out of Alliance hands meant they stayed on the Draka lands and ate up resources, both to feed them and keep them from bolting. Some Draka proposed that, in the interest of keeping the Citizen class and loyal and productive serfs fed, the disloyal and unproductive should be killed or driven into the Alliance-occupied areas where they'd eat up enemy resources and not their own.

The Draka government-such as it was at this point-roundly rejected killing serfs. The paternalistic planters in particular opposed this notion and thanks to the destruction of most urban centers in the Domination, they had a stronger hand than the city-born did. What was left of the urban elite, grown powerful thanks to the dominance of the Militants and the Security Directorate, found the political balance shifting against them at the worst possible time.

However, the urban/Security faction is not without arguments. Disloyal serfs could become new armies if there are enough of them.

Ultimately, the number of crimes for which death is the penalty is increased, serf human shields are used to deal with the disloyal, and enormous numbers of aged and sick serfs are rounded up and marched to the Alliance lines. The Alliance forces initially accept them, then begin turning them away as it becomes clear they won't be able to feed them either.

Famine begins to tighten its grip on the Domination as agricultural yields drop dramatically due to the combination of the nuclear winter and the destruction of most of the transportation system. The old and sick-especially among the serfs-begin to die. Food that would be considered fit only for serfs becomes a delicacy among Citizens. Human-Draka parents reluctantly begin to take their _drakensis_ children's word that the meat on the table came from game and that any missing serfs had run away to the Alliance.

The Alliance leadership, meanwhile, debated what to do. Taking more territory meant taking responsibility for feeding its population, which the Alliance would not be able to do, and expending resources harder and harder to come by, even with the growing offworld imports. Some thought the Domination should be allowed to break down, as the Citizens and their loyalists hogging the food-with reports of the _drakenses_ actually eating serfs-would provoke revolts by other serfs.

However, not doing so gave the Draka time to fortify and possibly produce newer and dangerous weapons. Nobody wanted the Draka to be able to scrape together enough nuclear material or antimatter to build even something resembling the "Fenris" that Eric von Shrakenberg warned them had been discussed in the Domination's ruling circles before his overthrow.

So in January 2002, as the nuclear winter began to wane, a second wave of offensives was unleashed against the Domination...


	27. Tearing The Domination Apart

**The Dragon and the Bear: Tearing the Domination Apart**

The next wave of attacks on the Domination begins on January 15th with a Turko-Russian surge out of Aleppo down the great road towards Hama and Homs. At the same time, other Turkish and Russian forces march out of Al Ladhiqiyah, with the ultimate goal of Tripoli and even Beirut.

Another Turko-Russian army emerges from eastern Asia Minor and seizes Al Qamishi, moving along the river and its associated roads through eastern Syria to prevent any attacks on the western offensives' supply lines.

Meanwhile, Persian and Russian forces in Mesopotamia begin crossing the western deserts towards Amman, Damascus, and the Holy Land. The march across the open desert-where even Draka infantry are vulnerable to aerial and orbital attack-is relatively easy, but things begin to get icky as the armies arrive in our world's western Jordan, which is more heavily settled. The Draka conserve their remaining aircraft and tanks for use when cloud cover permits, instead relying on heavily-armed infantry and ghouloons. This slows the Alliance advance and picks off many stragglers and isolated units, but it does not stop them.

A fourth advance, consisting of Russian forces and locally-raised Muslim armies, begins in Mecca and Medina and moves northward towards Aqaba, while a fifth attack is launched out of liberated Cyprus towards Lebanon and the Galilee. The latter attacks are more spoiling raids to distract from the larger offensives, although they do take some coastal territory.

The remaining Draka and loyal serfs in the Middle East are slowly squeezed towards the Levantine coast. They manage to form a defensive perimeter bounded in the north by the Litani River, in the east by the Jordan, and south on the Red Sea, which is tenuously supplied from Egypt.

The advance is brutal and there are many cases where so much dust and debris is raises by orbital bombardment that it affects the local climate. The Russian commander sets April 22, the Orthodox Easter of that year, as the date where Jerusalem should liberated. This animates the fighting spirit of (Christian) Russian soldiers, while the promise of reclaiming the al-Aksa mosque serves the same for Muslims and the Temple Mount for Jews.

(Just who is to have the final jurisdiction over the property is left undiscussed, for the moment).

The Litani line is breached in late February, while the Jordan is pierced in early March. The Russo-Islamic armies take Be'er Sheva in mid-March. The cities of the old Philistine domain fall like dominos, as do Nablus and Jenin. Jerusalem is besieged on March 25th.

It gets ugly. The Draka know the significance of their prize to the oncoming Alliance armies and fight to hold it. Street by street, sewer tunnel by sewer tunnel, the allied armies are forced to pay a steep price for the city, with only its sacredness preventing it from simply being flattened from orbit.

However, the Draka's efforts are for naught. Jerusalem falls to the Alliance armies on April 19th. Even then, the Draka nearly make the victory meaningless-they attempt to destroy the city and all therein with an assemblage of nuclear devices. A Spetsnaz commando raid largely foils the scheme, although one nuke does go off and cause a minor earthquake along the fault-line running through the Mount of Olives.

Every church, synagogue, and mosque in Jerusalem is filled with the faithful giving thanks for the great victory, with the Church of the Resurrection holding its most well-attended Easter services in centuries. The last Draka holdouts retreat across sea (braving orbital fire) to land in Egypt, where they help form the Suez Line in late April. For the first time since the First Great War, the Middle East is free of theDraka.

As the Russian armies crashed through the Middle East, French, Italian, and German troops decided to eject the Draka from Europe entirely.

Forcing the Pyrenees-which had been subjected to an extremely punishing orbital bombardment as part of the Alliance attempt to keep the Draka in southern France from retreating into Spain-was relatively easy. The advance was held up in places by minefields-some of which involved nukes-but by February 1st, the Alliance was firmly ensconced in Pamplona and Barcelona.

Massive naval landings supported by orbital gunfire are made along the northern Iberian coast from La Coruna all the way to Donostia-San Sebastian. Alliance forces advance quickly, blasting aside starving and rebel-beset Draka forces-in the west, they reach as far as the Minno and the old Portuguese border, taking the cities of Vigo and Orense by storm. The Cordillera Cantabrica and the Sistema Iberico mountain ranges prove obstacles to the Alliance advance, especially with the Burgos Gap heavily mined.

Meanwhile, the Balearic Islands are taken by Alliance troops dropping straight down from orbit. The fighting is brutal and the small size of the islands means orbital bombardment has to be used sparingly so the Alliance doesn't hit its own soldiers. Menorca and Eivissa fall quickly; Majorca takes some time and is particularly bloody. The islands are used to support raiding against eastern Spain and northern Africa.

All three Alliance forces occupying the fringes of Spain and Portugal surge forward at once. European armies move south along the Ebro from Pamplona, while other troops follow the rail lines into the interior. Logrono and Zaragoza fall to them, giving the Alliance control of the remaining transportation links straight southwest towards Madrid.

Meanwhile, the forces in northeastern Iberia force their way through Burgos using fuel-air bombs to destroy or prematurely detonate the extensive minefields. The Draka fall back quickly to Salamanca, taking severely losses from orbital bombardment in the open country.

In the far west, the liberation of Portugal begins. The Alliance armies march southward as quickly as they can, leaving pockets of Draka isolated to be dealt with later. Lisbon is liberated at the end of March, although the Alliance armies have to pause to bring up supplies, rest their armies, and deal with Draka in their rear soon afterward. Another army breaks off from this effort in the north and turns west around the bottom of the Cordillera Cantabrica, striking against Salamnca from the northwest. The city quickly falls, with the Sistema Central protecting Madrid (momentarily) from Alliance attack.

In the east, the Alliance forces land in Valencia from their Balearic bases. A liberated zone is set up from Alicante all the way to the French border. The armies landed here move westward out of Valencia and Torrente into Castilla-La Mancha towards Madrid, as do the Alliance armies in the northeast.

Madrid is surrounded and cut off; other Allied armies surge south, driving for Gibraltar. The Draka armies, cut off from communications and supplies, disintegrate before the massive coordinated drive. The Alliance for Democracy reaches the coast in mid-April. The Draka make their stand in the old fortress of Gibraltar, holding out for nearly a week before a few demoralized survivors surrender. Madrid falls at the same time. The Draka have been ejected from Europe at last.

Meanwhile, the Alliance surface fleet not used in finishing off Spain-reduced in size and importance due to the space race but still formidable-gathers all along the African coasts to support the Alliance armies in their enclaves in western and eastern Africa and pound the hell out of the remaining Draka industrial capacity elsewhere.

The Draka surface fleet at this point is gone and their submarine flotilla is greatly reduced, but they intend to make the Alliance hurt as much as possible. Unfortunately, with the Draka space capability gone, their ability to track the Alliance fleets and communicate with their superiors or each other is greatly reduced. Many subs are lost attacking much larger Alliance forces alone they might have been able to take together.

Unfortunately, many Draka subs were armed with nuclear or (rare) antimatter munitions, so all a submarine has to do is get lucky once. The carrier _USS Shiloh_ is destroyed by an antimatter torpedo off Madagascar, along with a couple of its escorts. The Draka submarine responsible is quickly destroyed, but the tempo of Alliance naval air operations against the Draka is greatly reduced in the region.

For the moment. The Alliance rulers decide on a strategy that will enable an army to march into the Domination's heart and rip it out. Preparations to liberate the island of Madagascar begin...


	28. Marching Through Africa

**The Dragon and the Bear: Marching Through Africa**

By Matthew W. Quinn

In the Ethiopian theater, the Russians march out of their coastal bases into the highlands, while other forces move down the coastline. Our world's Kismaayo falls, completing the conquest of the Somali lands, while our world's Asmara and Kassala fall soon afterward. The long slog toward what was once the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa begins.

General Dimtri Yeltsin, commander of the Russian troops occupying the southern regions of the Horn of Africa, conceives of a daring plan. Though the Draka armies in the heart of the Police Zone are formidable, their transportation network is in ruins and they're undersupplied. The Russian forces, however, are in very good condtion.

So Yeltsin marches on the Kenia Province, moving out of Kismaayo on the road to Travisburg (our world's Nairobi). The Draka fall back on the provincial capital, abandoning most of the lowlands to retreat into the mountains.

As Yeltsin's armies pursue the Draka, they encounter blacks without neck-tattoos. These are the children and grandchildren of the Janissary rebels of the 1950s who fled into the highlands. Most of them were hunted down over the decades, but a few hardy survivors managed to survive, occasionally raiding plantations for supplies. The footage of a very old man-one of the last surviving rebels-meeting the Russian general is broadcast worldwide, to everyone's fascination.

As the Russian armies march through the Kenia province, serf uprisings break out everywhere. Most are crushed brutally due to the presence of _drakenses_, but more and more Draka are driven off their plantations, to shelter in the fortified shells of their cities.

Alliance orbital stations bombard Travisburg as Yeltsin's army lays siege to it. Waves of ghouloons pour out of the city, overrunning Russian forward positions through savagery and weight of numbers. Travisburg holds the rail links into the highlands, highlands that are increasingly falling under the control of serf rebels. Allied paratroopers or orbit-dropped soldiers seize several strong points to the city's rear, cutting it off from the rest of the highlands. The city falls at the end of March, even before Jerusalem.

Yeltsin's army advances further into the highlands. As they march, they discover what the Draka had been cooking up in their laboratories. There are serfs deliberately bred with Asperger's Syndrome, to serve as very devoted accountants and other mathematically-heavy jobs. There are younger serfs who seem particularly unaggressive and easily fall under the sway of any _drakenses_ nearby-these are the _Homo servus_, created to replace non-Draka _Homo sapiens_ just as the _drakeneses_ would someday replace the human-Draka.

Sufficient to say, no _drakensis_ or human-Draka prisoners are taken for quite awhile by Yeltsin's horror-stricken army.

Eventually, Yeltsin's army stops at the Lolagipi Swamp along the southern border of the Sudan. Another Russian army emerges from Kismaayo and marches across the northern part of the country, liberating plantations along the way. The two armies meet up at Lake Rudolf, to rest and rearm before marching north into the Great Rift Valley to meet up with the other Russian forces that have already occupied the northern regions of the Ethiopian Highlands.

In mid-April, Yeltsin's swollen army begins moving northward into the southern reaches of what used to be Ethiopia. They reach our world's Jima before running into serious resistance. The northern Russian armies are around our world's Dese and Bure. The two armies will crush Draka-held Addis Ababa between them.

This was not to be. Addis Ababa falls in May, not to the Alliance, but to a new wave of Janissary revolts. As the most loyal of the serfs, they had access to resources only slightly below that of Citizens, but seeing the starvation and sickness spreading throughout the general serf population and being used as cannon fodder eventually grew too much for them. The leader of this revolt-so light-skinned he was sometimes mistaken for a Citizen, until people saw the tattoo-claimed to be a descendant of the Ethiopian royal line through a royal ancestress taken as a captive by the victorious Draka sometime in the 19th Century. He declared himself Emperor of Ethiopia and the Russians were inclined to allow it. The Draka armies in the region, sandwiched between Russians in the north and south and with their redoubt until rebel control, surrender.

From Port Sudan all the way to our world's Malindi and from the Indian Ocean all the way to Lakes Rudolf and Victoria, East Africa has fallen into the hands of the Russians. The new Ethiopian emperor, advised by Russians, begins gathering a new army of his own, to join with the Alliance liberators and wrench even more African territory out from under the Yoke.

The Russian general staff begins creating a new war-plan. The Ethiopians and Russians will march northward, while the Suez Line will be breached. The two armies will meet on the Nile, perhaps near the old city of Khartoum. The Russian forces in the Middle East have been rearmed and rested.

The Nile Campaign will begin in August, once the heat of July passes...


	29. The March Continues

**The Dragon and the Bear: The March Continues**

By Matthew W. Quinn

In western Africa, the Americans and other Western Hemisphere powers advance inland along the river valleys and move up and down the coasts, liberating the plantations and surviving industrial compounds as they advance. Serf rebellions erupt all around them as they advance. In the northern parts of our world's Nigeria, Muslim rebels proclaim the old Sokoto Caliphate and begin rampaging around, liberating a sizable part of the old Fulani homeland with the help of Alliance fire support and airdropped arms.

The Draka make a stand around the nuke-damaged city of Dakar, one of their major West African ports and industrial centers. Orbital bombardment is used sparingly, since the Alliance will need what's left of the city's logistical capability to support the continued attacks on the Domination. The battle takes two days and costs thousands of lives on both sides, but the American and Brazilian flags fly high above the shattered airship dock by the end of it in mid-February. Airship supply runs begin immediately, carrying masses of arms, food, ammunition, and other vital supplies to sustain the advance into Africa.

At the same time, the Alliance begins its slog through the cities that lie along the Gulf of Guinea towards Port Harcout, the Draka capital of the region. The Draka armies lack the ability of maneuver due to deficits in fuel and spare parts and Alliance orbital attack, but the widespread serf rebellions have led to rural Draka crowding into the cities, making each one a little Kirovy Rog. It is not until early March that Lagos falls and Port Harcourt is not besieged until late March. Reducing that city takes a week.

Meanwhile, the Draka armies and possessions north of the West African coast-open targets due to the flat, desert-like terrain-are subjected to constant aerial and orbital bombardment, as well as lots of arms caches dropped from orbit. Though most serf rebellions are defeated with no nearby Alliance armies to distract the loyal Draka and their serf loyalists, the wild country is soon full of ex-serfs with weapons and grudges. The Draka ability to hunt them is greatly reduced by the Alliance ability to swat their helicopters from the sky with orbital strikes-"if it flies, it dies." It ends up falling to ghouloon/_drakensis_ hunter-killer teams to deal with the serfs.

As they advance, the Alliance forces discover more and more Draka experimentation. They're even more horrified than the Russians were, since the Catholic Church opposes transgenic experiments using human DNA. The fact that the _drakensis_ have been killing and eating runaway serfs is even more offensive.

The American commander General Thomas Rifkin gives the order that no _drakensis_ prisoners are to be taken. The _Homo servus_ they find can be pitied, but the _drakenses_ are designed to prey on humans and should be treated as rogue animals. There are objections to this-particularly when it's child and infant _drakensis_ being killed out of hand-but most of the American public stops their ears to the criticism.

The deliberate genocide of _Homo drakensis_ in western Africa-with the exception of the few prisoners already taken, since they're "caged animals," proverbially speaking-goes on until at least April, when Pope John Paul II finally issues an _ex cathedra_ edict that though human genetic experimentation is a sin before God, the Americans' policy in West Africa is also sinful, particularly in regards to young _drakenses_ who have not done any violence to anyone. The Patriarch of Constantinople issued a similar proclamation, after some consultation with the other Orthodox patriarchs and the relevant political leaders

This sets off a major political debate in the United States-though martial law was in place for the first year after the war began, it was lifted once the Domination was on the defensive and the 2002 legislative elections are coming up-as well as in Russia. Ultimately, the US government orders the killings of non-combatant _drakenses_ to cease and the Russians echo the order. Though VERY few _drakensis_ prisoners are taken, children and infants are no longer killed but instead interned pending a final decision on what to do with them. They are guarded by only the strongest-willed and cybernetically-augmented, lest they use their pheromones to try something.

Meanwhile, Gaynor reaches the conclusion that much of the Domination is indefensible at this point. The Alliance advance in the east and west will cut off North Africa from the rest of the Domination and then it will be reduced at the enemy's leisure.

Orders are issued through the Domination's crumbling communications system to evacuate everything north of a certain point to the North African coast and south of a certain point into the African core. The Nile lines of communication are to be held at all costs-if need be, theDraka who withdraw to northern Africa can retreat to Egypt and down the Nile into the Domination's heart.

All across the Sahara and Sahel, the Draka and their serf loyalists begin moving northward, destroying all useful assets and leaving non-userful serfs to the Alliance to look after. Though the Domination's remaining ground-to-orbit weapons and aircraft are tasked with defending this modern-day exodus from orbital and aerial attack, convoys moving across the desert are easy targets and a brutal toll is taken. Over one million Citizens and four million serf loyalists are killed in the process of the evacuation, but as a result, North Africa and the Congo Basin (in particular the severely damaged Virunga Biocontrol, the heart of Draka bio-science and -warfare) are greatly reinforced.

In the political vacuum left in the north-central zone abandoned by the Draka, all hell breaks loose. Huge numbers of serfs die of starvation, disease, or depredations by armed rebels. Various political or religious movements spring up, based on half-remembered passages from unexpurgated Korans smuggled into the Domination, left-wing ideas from Janissaries who served in Europe passed down among the serfs through oral tradition, or things overheard from the masters talking among themselves. Hundreds of tiny republics, communes, and mini-dictatorships spring up among the ruined cities and plantations. The Alliance immediately moves to aid these communities lest they all starve or break down completely, but at least one war breaks out between pure-Communist and anarchist ex-serfs, made all the more morbidly comical by how ignorant said ex-serfs are of these ideas beyond the buzzwords.


	30. Trouble in the Holy Land

**The Dragon and the Bear: Trouble in the Holy Land**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Meanwhile, the Russians and their local allies found themselves reorganizing the Middle Eastern territories taken from the Domination. They ran into significantly more problems than the Americans had in western Africa, since many of the old ethnic and religious antagonisms had not been totally destroyed by extended Draka rule.

As soon as the plantations and compounds were liberated across the trans-Suez provinces, enormous numbers of Kurdish-speaking serfs streamed back towards their mountain homelands, only to find the areas not converted into nature preserves (which was most of them) had others living there. Many of them were on their way back to their own ancestral homes, but others liked where they were at and refused to leave. This led to lots and lots of communal violence. Since many of those who remained were Turkmen, the Turks made noises about claiming jurisdiction there as well.

(On a happier note, the Marsh Arabs returned to their homes and resumed their old lives, their former dominion all the better due to the Draka keeping it as a nature preserve for several decades.)

Sunni missionaries based in Turkey and Shi'ite missionaries based in Persia trickled into the liberated areas as well, determined to correct any religious errors that had sprung up under Draka rule. This led to more communal violence, particularly when a group of Shi'ite converts in Arabia attempted to assert jurisdiction over the Holy Cities.

Meanwhile, enormous numbers of European and American Jews petitioned to help their newly-freed brethren in the Near East in the same manner African-Americans did in West Africa. The Draka had allowed their Jewish serfs more leeway in terms of authorized education than their Arab serfs and employed them in many useful tasks. Though this meant they were in less need of, say, basic literacy or mathematics, but they were still well below proper Jewish norms. To top it off, those who had not fled with the retreating Draka were subject to anti-Semitic violence from Gentile ex-serfs who viewed the Jews as collaborators in the same way medieval peasants hated the Jews for serving as tax-collectors for the nobles.

The Russians and other Eurasian powers permitted this, but soon found themselves dealing with the Zionists, whose dream of a Near Eastern Jewish homeland had been scuppered by the Draka conquest of the region. Many Zionists were arranging for Jewish ex-serfs from all across the Near East to move to the Levantine coast where they could be the majority population, ostensibly for their own protection against revenge attacks. This meant friction with Christian and Muslim Arab ex-serfs already living there. There were violent incidents, although the presence of the Russian armies massing to breach the Suez Line kept large-scale violence to a minimum.

The Russians were in no mood for civic unrest that would divert troops from their enormous undertaking, particularly with the Draka so close. They immediately ordered a halt to all population movements until the end of the war, aborting everyone's effort to reclaim any purported homelands. This led to some isolated instances of terrorism, although the general public hated the perpetrators for attacking their liberators and handed them over to the occupiers at every opportunity.

EU planners in Warsaw began drawing up how to organize the Middle East. There was already precedent for a Syrian state-one had existed for a brief period after the First Great War, before the Draka destroyed it-but local rebels had no opportunity to proclaim it before the Russians occupied the region. A Syrian Federation including our world's Syria and Lebanon was created under EU auspices.

Dealing with Mesopotamia proved difficult, as many Persians were intent on claiming the region as war spoils. Others, however, did not want to have to deal with the brewing Arab-Kurd problems and many Sunnis in the Land Between the Rivers did not want to live under a government dominated by Shi'ites, even if said government was secular.

Ultimately, the Russians organized a plebiscite. The pro-independence faction won 60-40 and the Mesopotamian Federation-which many of the common folk called Iraq-was proclaimed as well. Kurdistan was incorporated into the new government, including the city of Mosul. The Turks had to content themselves with some territorial scraps and a promise of first crack at revamping the damaged petroleum industry.

The Levant was kept under martial law due to it being the staging grounds for the planned assault on Egypt, but the EU planners decided a secular Levantine Federation would be the best way to accommodate everyone. That lovely chestnut would be left for later, once the Draka had been expelled from Egypt.

In central Arabia, the EU interest in establishing democratic federations collided with the ambitions of pretenders from the old Hashemite, al-Saud, and Rashid families. These were largely those who claimed descent from captive princesses of these families and Draka conquerors, since the Domination took pains to annihilate all males of the ruling houses, and it was often difficult to prove descent. All sides had their partisans in the pan-Islamic army raised for the liberation of the Holy Cities and a small-scale war broke out between the Rashidi and the al-Sauds.

Ultimately, the Russians allowed the establishment of a Kingdom of the Hejaz under the Hashemites. Martial law was declared over Central Arabia in order to keep the Rashid/Saud unrest under control, with some EU planners wondering if it would be better to deny the prize to both dynasties and give it to the Hashemites.

Further south, an Omani pretender was amassing a following. To avoid too much trouble, he was allowed to re-establish the Omani Sultanate. Yemen was kept under martial law due to its vital status as a resupply hub for the liberation of East Africa and growing tribal friction.


	31. The Last Gamble

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Last Gamble**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As the Iberian peninsula, the Middle East, and large chunks of east and west Africa fell into the hands of the Alliance for Democracy, Archon Gaynor and his inner circle took stock of the situation in their Angolan lair.

However much none of them liked it, everything outside of Africa was irretrievably lost. The Citizens and serf loyalists on the ground were too few and the serf population as a whole had not had its backbone bred out of it due to "survival of the most servile" policies over centuries of Domination.

It was probable that the growing chunks of territory occupied in eastern and western Africa were lost too, but that was less certain. The Alliance armies were getting overextended in places (especially West Africa, where the Draka had pre-emptively abandoned much territory) and the pace of their advance was very reliant on their spatial supremacy to bombard any Draka attempt to concentrate from orbit.

So several enormous ground-to-orbit "superguns" were either moved out of storage or built in areas where the Domination's industrial base could accommodate them. When the time came, these guns would fire enormous quantities of sand into orbit, blinding Alliance satellites. Alliance military vessels moving to respond would be fired on by other such guns loaded with all that remained of the Domination's antimatter stashes and several jury-rigged high-yield nukes.

The Draka did not expect the guns to last long after the initial surprise bombardment-they were to be entirely Janissary-crewed for that reason-but they hoped to create enormous orbital chaos to engage in some large-scale concentration and maneuvering, complete with the expenditure of virtually all the Domination's remaining tactical nuclear weapons.

The goal: Inflict enough losses on the Alliance armies that the Alliance leadership would be inclined to accept a peace proposal guaranteeing the survival of the Domination in a truncated form.

If the Alliance could be forced out of liberated territory, so much the better. Though Gaynor thought it possible the West African and East African pockets could be destroyed entirely and the Draka could get the "borders of 1880," he recognized this was a slender reed at best. He was prepared to recognize Ethiopia, whatever the Alliance did with interior West Africa, and the West African Federation if he had to, but retaining Egypt (with its very large, long-settled Citizen population) and a land connection with the sub-Saharan older territories was a priority.

The Draka leadership decided that June would be the optimum month to launch their last offensive, the gamble on which they would risk the continued survival of the State. They began their counterattack at the stroke of midnight on June 12th with the opening blasts of their superguns, firing thousands of tons into sand in orbit over the planned sites of their counteroffensives (East and West Africa), sites of likely Alliance offensives (the Suez and the Maghreb), and industrial targets vulnerable to orbital bombardment (a lot of the southern third of the continent).

Once the debris sufficiently obscured the ground from orbital reconnaissance, the Draka moved. The forces the Draka could muster in east Africa surged north and east from the sliver of the Kenia province remaining in their hands (centered around our world's Mombasa) and from staging grounds around Lake Victoria. Our world's Kisumu falls back into the hands of the Draka, while a two-pronged thrust threatened our world's Nairobi. Another Draka army moved out of the Uganda region to threaten the Russian occupation forces guarding the southern entrance of the Great Rift Valley, but a severe lack of fuel and functional vehicles slows their advance to a crawl. The Draka gleefully used tactical nuclear weapons, inflicting ruinous casualties on the allied armies. The Russian armies fell back, screening their retreats with formations dominated by "war cats" to reduce human losses.

In western Africa, Draka forces cross the Sanaga River, taking our world's Calabar, Oyo, and Aba and even threatening Alliance-held Port Harcourt. The Alliance had a lot of supplies stockpiled at the port, plus not all the oil-production sites in the Niger delta had been destroyed in the nuclear exchange. The Draka armies needed fuel to advance, and there was fuel to be had here.

The Alliance spatial forces moved quickly moved to attack the supergun sites that had fired sand into orbit, only to fall prey to other superguns armed with the Domination's last antimatter munitions. Two large Alliance warships and several smaller craft were blown apart, as were battle-stations moved into the area to support orbital bombardment efforts. The Alliance's ability to support its ground forces in the area of Draka counterattack was cut to a quarter in a stroke.

Troops were rushed from all over the liberated zones to contain the Draka advance in both theaters.

A substantial force consisting of American, Brazilian, and West African federal troops (the latter barely out of training) made it to Port Harcourt before the Draka surrounded it on three sides. A particularly brutal battle began.

In East Africa, Russian and other allied troops contained the Draka advance near Lake Rudolf, but Draka forces began shelling Nairobi. Other Draka forces advanced up the coast, taking our world's Malindi and threatening our world's Garsen. Roughly a quarter of the Kenia province was back under Draka control, and the Domination's reprisals were fierce. Russian troops were pulled away from the planned assault on the Draka Nile lines to deal with the new threat.

Even as the Alliance forces scrambled to contain the Draka offensives in Africa, some of the more aggressive Alliance commanders realized that the Draka likely weakened themselves in other theaters, particularly in the realm of nuclear weapons. Using Spain as a bad, the EU struck into northern Africa, crossing the straits of Gibraltar into what used to be Morocco. Meanwhile, EU forces in Sicily and Sardinia landed in an arc stretching from our world's Tizi Ouzou to Draka Nova Cartago in the west and Sfax to Gabes in the east. Tunis managed to hold out against the Alliance assault, barely. An EU probe from Malta was driven away from Tripoli and had to content itself with Al Khums instead.

Massive battles raged around Setif and Batna as the Alliance forces pushed their way inland, fighting against Draka forces swollen by the evacuation of interior West Africa. Tripoli and Tunis were kept under constant aerial and artillery attack, reducing both cities to masses of rubble.

Further west, the Alliance forces ran up against the Atlas Mountains, with the Draka falling back to Marrakech. Draka forces poured northward out of OTL Western Sahara to reinforce their beleaguered kindred, leaving devastation in their wake. Alliance aerial forces based in the recently captured Canary Islands and carriers offshore harried the units mercilessly, causing the advance to finally collapse around our world's Tan-Tan.

Much further east, the Russians decided to throw their dice early and began the great Suez offensive. Russian forces poured across the Sinai Peninsula and the Draka poured out of Alexandria, colliding with the Russians on the Suez Canal itself.

The resulting battle was a bloodbath, with the Russians forced to give ground repeatedly during the early days. Poison gas was used with abandon not seen since the Second Great War. In places, destroyed vehicles and corpses, both of humans and transgene war-beasts, littered the ground so thickly that the earth could not be seen. The Russian lines bulged in several places as the Draka forced them back across the Sinai.

However, the Russian lines never broke. The Russians screened their retreats with "war cats" and unmanned aircraft and ground-based war machines never seen before, conserving their human manpower. The Draka's supplies were limited and they were running out of fuel. The Draka counterattack stalled a quarter of the way across the peninsula.

Meanwhile, other Russian forces and units from the new Arab states eager to prove their worth leaped across the Red Sea, landing at our world's Hurghada to threaten the Draka armies engaged in the Sinai from the south. Other armies made their way towards Qena, key to the eastern defenses of the Nile Valley. If the Alliance armies got into the lower Nile, the Draka would face the mother of all serf uprisings.

The Draka began depleting their forces in the Sinai, moving south to meet the new threat. Unfortunately, they lacked the fuel to move quickly or far. Qena fell in late June and the Alliance armies quickly seized Luxor, Akhmim, Aswan, and El Kharga.

Up and down the length of the Nile Valley, the plantations exploded. Millions of serfs went after the nearest Janissaries, drivers, or Draka with their farming implements. In many cases, the uprisings were crushed brutally, but Sohag and Asyut fell to serf rebels. Draka and loyal serfs streamed down the Nile, turning the Delta into a vast fortress.

In Angola, Gaynor watched with horror. A sizable chunk of the Nile lines of communication had just fallen into enemy hands, cutting off Alexandria from resupply. Meanwhile, his planned offensives were falling short of their objectives, largely due to problems keeping the units supplied.

He ordered Draka forces in Egypt to move southward and reopen the roads south, killing any and all serfs they could find.

As the Domination made its last throw of the dice, the Alliance worked desperately to clear the skies over its armies and replace units lost in the Draka surprise attack.

The first region of orbit to be cleared enough to accurately deploy orbital fire support was over Kenia. The Alliance attack was massive-Mombasa and Malindi were pulverized from orbit, bombed until the rubble literally glowed. The Draka forces that had since taken Garsen found themselves without regular supplies and then found themselves under bombardment themselves.

Our world's Moshi and Arusha, major supply hubs, were the next to get this treatment, followed afterward by Kisumu. Every known supergun site in the region was destroyed. Alliance forces surged forward, splintering the battered, starving Draka forces. By the end of June, all of the Kenia province was back under Alliance control.

The Alliance then turned its attention towards Egypt. Supported by orbital fire, the Russians surged forward once more and broke the Suez Line. The Russian army rolled across the Nile Delta, preceded by enormous serf uprisings. Alexandria did not receive the treatment other African cities received due to its cultural heritage. The Draka armies moving overland to crush the serf risings were broken to pieces by orbital assault, the remainder mopped up by Alliance forces. Particularly humiliating were instances where Draka soldiers surrendered to Arab troops who had been serfs a year before.

By the time August dawned, only Alexandria and the southwestern part of Egypt were still in Draka hands.

In Angola, Gaynor nearly surrendered to despair. He had been on the eve of contacting Alliance officials to begin peace negotiations from what would be a position of relative strength, only to have the rug pulled out from under him. Now, with the Domination's supply of tactical nuclear weapons all but exhausted, its transportation network even more destroyed then before, and with much of its field army dead, he knew the end was near.

Still, he vowed to make it as costly for the Alliance as possible...


	32. It Ends

**The Dragon and the Bear: It Ends**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As the Draka positions in East Africa crumbled, the Alliance made a large gamble of its own-the invasion of Madagascar. Supplied by constant suborbital flights from India and Arabia, a vast Alliance naval force descended on Mauritius and the Seychelles in July, to use them as a staging ground. By August 1st, the vast armies of American, Russian, and Indian troops were prepared to invade Madagascar itself.

The first landings took place in a broad sweep from our world's Vangaindrano all the way to Toamasina. Alliance aircraft, supported by orbital firepower, ranged as far as the interior of Mozambique, destroying anything trying to cross the Mozambique Channel. Alliance forces crossed over the rough interior of Madagascar to seize our world's Morondava and Toliaria by mid-August, liberating the most populous parts of the island. Our world's Mahajanga held out for the moment, but Alliance paratroopers seized control of the Comoros Islands, given the forces of democracy another axis of attack.

A second wave of landings were launched from the Seychelles, seizing the northern tip of the island all the way to our world's Antalaha. Drakaresistance crumbled and the entire island was secure by the end of the month. It was now possible for aircraft to fly under the dust cloud protecting what was left of Archona and other industrial sites in the Domination from orbital bombardment.

The Alliance leadership began planning for a new wave of attacks once the appropriate logistical train could be put in place-the river country in the northern part of our world's Mozambique. A strong Alliance presence here would enable the Draka provinces of our world's Tanzania to be crushed like a grape between a pair of tongs and bring all of the industrial territories of southern Africa under the threat of aerial and paratrooper attack.

Many Draka had already seen the writing on the wall when they were thrown out of the brief conquests they'd made in Italy and elsewhere early in the war, but the failure of Gaynor's last gamble convinced many more. The Draka had been trained to think that defeat equaled death, both for individual Citizens and for the State as a whole, but the Second Great War had taught them that the Alliance might not be as merciless to them as they were to any defeated opponents.

The first Draka to surrender without guns literally to their heads were serf-born officers of Janissary legions. The Militant-dominated government tended to assign them to command the armies of cannon fodder, with the unspoken assumption that they weren't "real" Citizens anyway. Many serf-born had fought to earn the respect they felt they deserved as Citizens, but others began to think they owed more to the serf soldiers they commanded than to the wider Citizen body that treated them as second-class.

The first mass surrender of a Janissary army took place in the Kenia province in the aftermath of the return of Alliance orbital supremacy and the shattering of the Domination's army. The devastated remains of seven Janissary legions-over 10,000 serf-soldiers and 500 Citizen officers-surrendered to General Yeltsin rather than starve or be "mopped up" by Alliance armies.

Other surrenders took place in West Africa and Egypt as the victorious Aliance forces cleaned up the mess their massive orbital bombardment had left. The net gain was 30,000 Citizen officers-including 2,000 _drakensis_-and 500,000 Janissaries. No large-scale Citizen Force surrenders had taken place yet. After all, convincing a Janissary legion to surrender required convincing only a few Citizens; convincing a Citizen Force unit required the consent of nearly everyone.

In his Angolan lair, Gaynor sneered that the serf-born weren't tough enough to be "real Draka" anyway. He would worry only if "real"Draka, Citizens on both sides, surrendered.

In early August, Gaynor's nightmare came true. The garrison of Alexandria, under heavy siege, regularly bombarded from orbit, and with a seething, angry serf populace threatening to rise up at any time, surrendered to Russian forces pouring through the Sinai. The Alliance, not willing to face a North African Kirovy Rog, offered generous terms-the Citizens would be secure in their lives and non-human property, with the exception of those who committed "grievous crimes." All serfs, however, were to be freed, and the old Draka governmental institutions beyond the most basic were dissolved. The Draka armies went into captivity, with the _drakenses_ guarded by the new Russian war machines they could not manipulate with pheromones; child _drakenses_ were allowed to remain with their families but kept under close watch.

Now that Alexandria was out of the way, Russian forces surged across North Africa, meeting up with German, French, and Italian forces in Libya. The last Draka holdouts in Morocco surrendered under similar terms soon afterward. The entire African rim from Port Harcourt through North Africa all the way to Mombasa had been liberated. The African interior north of the Congo was largely free, with the exception of Sudan, now under threat from both the north and the south.

In mid-August, the Russians launched their Nile campaign, which had been delayed somewhat by the Domination's last offensive. The great army made its way north along the Nile, liberating plantations and smashing the few remaining industrial compounds. Meanwhile, another Russian army, augmented by substantial numbers of Western Europeans, marched south from Aswan.

As the two armies approached Khartoum, the serf population rose in revolt, literally tearing the Draka and their serf loyalists in the city to pieces. A small stream of survivors greeted the oncoming Russians with white flags. Only 1,000 Draka and 3,000 serf loyalists survived to enter captivity. The conquest of the remainder of the Sudan took only a couple of weeks.

Elsewhere in the Domination, Citizen officers took notice of the unexpected Alliance mercy. Alexandria showed them that the Alliance was prepared to tolerate entire Draka populations without the extenuating circumstances of them being necessary to tame an uninhabitable world (Mars). Many Citizen generals began sending out peace feelers, offering to surrender their armies and territories in exchange for "Alexandrian terms."

Many Alliance generals, eager to end the conflict that was consuming so many of their soldiers' lives, did not even wait for official authorization to accept these terms. Our world's Tanzania and Mozambique went over to the Alliance under "Alexandrian terms" in early August and were quickly occupied by nearby Alliance armies before the Domination even had time to react. The Draka generals in West Africa, mindful of the deliberate massacre of the _drakenses_ by American forces, were somewhat less trusting.

The popularity of "Alexandrian terms" alarmed some of the Alliance leaders. Some of the Alliance leaders did not even view the _drakenses_ as human and wanted them killed off, while others thought them too dangerous to be allowed to remain free and proposed isolating them in reservations or sterilizing them en masse. The Alliance leaders on Mars felt the _drakenses_ were too useful to impose too many restrictions on due to their experience using them to repair the damage from the war and supported the lenient surrender terms wholeheartedly.

While this debate was going on, Gaynor sent Security "headhunters" after Citizen officers he suspected of wavering. Dozens of Citizen heads rolled due to suspicion of treasonous contacts with the enemy or "defeatist attitude" and armies that could have surrendered found themselves commanded by men and women now willing to fight to the death.

With the possibility of the entire Domination dissolving rapidly decreasing, the Alliance leaders immediately announced that all Draka who surrendered would be offered "Alexandrian terms." There would be a postwar reckoning for the Militant government, of course, but not the majority of its servants. This was broadcast all over the Domination, the sheer strength of the Alliance signal blasting through any Draka attempt to jam it.

At the same time, the Alliance upped the propaganda aimed at serfs, hoping to put additional pressure on the Citizen leaders. The Draka policy of limiting serf education meant that the propaganda made little headway among the civilian-serf population, but it spread like wildfire among the Janissaries.

Massive Janissary revolts erupted in western Africa, causing the Draka positions there to crumble. The Alliance forces gearing to force their way into our world's Cameroon erupted southward, scything through the dissolving Draka formations like a hot knife through butter. The Congo was crossed at the end of August, bringing the Alliance armies perilously close to Gaynor's lair. The Citizens fared better south of the Congo due to being thicker on the ground, but whole swathes of countryside turned into no man's land infested with runaway serfs, predatory ex-Janissary bands, and Citizens trying to maintain order.

Through this morass surged the Alliance armies, with General Yeltsin leading the way. Draka units that surrendered received Alexandrian terms; those who did not were devastated. Due to Gaynor's purges, many units fought to the death, momentarily slowing the Alliance advance into the Domination's last strongholds. Still, Gaynor refused to surrender, and headhunters were ready in case anyone talked about it.

In early September, the remaining Draka generals had enough. They marched into Gaynor's command center and took him into custody themselves. Some pondered killing him for what he had brought upon the Domination, but others felt he would be a better bargaining chip alive. The coup leaders contacted the Alliance for Democracy and offered to surrender on Alexandrian terms.

This was accepted. On September 10th, 2002, the Domination of the Draka ceased to exist. Now all that remained was rebuilding the devastated world, punishing the surviving Draka for their sins, and deciding what to do with the fruit of their widespread genetic-engineering...


	33. The Wheels of Justice Grind Finely

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Wheels of Justice Grind Finely**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Within weeks of the surrender of the Domination, the victorious Alliance for Democracy began the day of reckoning for the Draka. The next few years were dominated by what came to be known as the Cape Town Trials, named after the single largest site. Other tribunals were set up in Lyon, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Baghdad, Medina, Nova Cartago, Alexandria, Addis Abba, Port Harcourt, our world's Mombasa, and Windhaven (our world's Windhoek).

The war and the serf risings had done much of the Alliance's work for it, but there was plenty of sin and guilt to go around. It was ultimately agreed not to hold each and every Draka responsible for the institution of slavery, but beyond that, fair game.

In Lyon and Rome, the Draka were held to the most exacting standards of justice. The French and Italian governments had survived the war, so they would not need to make compromises with useful Draka or serf loyalists in order to keep the state apparatus/reconstruction going. Not only were all Security Directorate Citizens and serf loyalists brought before the tribunals, but a much larger percentage of individual Citizens were punished for rape and other abuses of serfs, theft of lands where the original owners or heirs could be found, etc.

In Lyon, the elderly Chantal LeFarge, escorted by her two children, brought charges against Tanya von Shrakenberg-who had survived the French reconquest, although her husband Edward had not-as an accomplice to rape, since Edward repeatedly raping Chantal with the goal of getting her pregnant was Tanya's idea.

The statute of limitations had long since passed, but Chantal instead filed a civil suit, which she won handily due to Tanya's refusal to lie. This particular branch of the von Shrakenbergs had no money, but the court thought it amusing to give Chateau Retour to Chantal as compensation. Since the von Shrakenberg children had been killed during the Final War, ironically, Edgar LeFarge was Edward's eldest surviving child.

Once the trials were over, the executions began. Most of them were carried out by firing squad, but for some particularly notorious cases, the garrote was used for a slow, icky way to go. Over 10,000 Draka and serf loyalists were executed in Italy and France within the first two years of the war's end, with the remaining 50,000 eventually deported to what would become the South African Federation after long prison sentences.

In Iberia, the Middle East, and Africa, justice was more lenient due to the lack of records and the need to retain some prewar personnel to keep things functioning smoothly. Still, virtually the entire Security Directorate-Citizen and serf-went before the tribunals, as did Draka military units that fired on escaping serfs and practitioners of inhumane and tortuous medical experimentation. Vicious punishments were handed down. Over 500,000 were executed and 1,500,000 more ended up in labor camps. Rebel Janissaries-now incorporated into the armies of the new states carved out of the Domination-served as the firing squads, with duels being fought over the honor.

At Cape Town itself, the surviving leadership of the Domination went on trial. The star witness for the prosecution was none other than Eric von Shrakenberg himself-revealed to the entire world to be still alive. Virtually all of the Domination's political leadership received sentences of varying degrees of severity, with the Militants suffering the worst, the Draka League somewhere in the middle, and the Rationalists suffering the least. Gaynor and his inner circle were all sentenced to death for crimes against the peace, aggressive war, mass murder, and all the other charges generally associated with launching the most destructive war in human history. All of them were publically shot on the steps of the former Archonal Palace, with the exception of Gaynor. President Carmen Hiero felt like throwing Eric a bone with that one.

The trials concluded in 2005. Once it was done, the majority of the surviving free Draka and several million serf loyalists were deported to the South African Federation, which was to remain under Alliance occupation and supervision for 75 years. A few Draka were allowed to remain where they were, largely European and North African serf-born or those who had both useful skills and were sufficiently untainted, but there weren't a whole lot of them.


	34. Honor Satisfied

**The Dragon and the Bear: Honor Satisfied**

By Matthew W. Quinn

Cape Town, South African Federation  
July 2004

"You have ten minutes, Mr. von Shrakenberg," the American soldier said, opening the door to the soundproof interrogation room.

Eric von Shrakenberg nodded.

"Thank you," he said, his drawl somewhat reduced by years of having largely Americans for company. "It won't take that long."

The soldier shut the door behind him, leaving the former Archon alone in the room with his successor, who had been bound to a chair.

"Good afternoon," Eric began formally. "It's been awhile."

Taylor Gaynor spat on the concrete floor.

"To hell with you, yo' fuckin' traitor," he drawled.

"You can imagine why Ah'm here," Eric said. "You've been sentenced to death, but they didn't say nothing 'bout the method."

Eric coughed into his right hand. His fingers came away bloody. All those cigarettes he smoked in his misspent youth had come back to haunt him, much like they'd had Sofie. Unlike Sofie though, whose cancer was caught early, the Alliance doctors said there was only a 25% chance or so it was curable, but there were so many more people in need of doctors, even years after the war ended.

"You gonna kill me tied to this heah chair?" Taylor demanded. "Bloody fuckin' coward."

"Ah've got the crown of gold for bravery," Eric retorted. "Something you cain't say."

Eric's expression took on a pensive tone.

"For most of mah life, I thought it was win or die, that if we didn' put the whole world undah the Yoke, we'd be killed by the serfs, outlanders, o' both. Looks like that didn' happen."

Taylor snarled.

"Three-fourths of us dead," he spat. "And a lot of them thanks to you. You probably spilled yo' guts about th' Stone Dogs, made it so they raped us in the ass in space and won the war right then."

Long-suppressed shame welled up inside Eric. He had committed treason, much worse than just sending his serf daughter to America. He was likely responsible for thousands of young Draka dying in their spacegoing tin cans, just like his comrades had died when their transports took ground fire back during the Second Great War. He always thought he'd loved his people, but he'd condemned most of them to death.

He shook his head. Whatever evils he'd done, they'd helped prevent a greater evil-the entire world going under the Yoke or being reduced to an ashen dead rock. And his cooperation might well have bought the Draka survivors their lives.

"Ah owe you death for Sofie's sake," Eric said. "Mah first and greatest love was Tyansha-"

That spoke a torrent of disdain and profanity from Taylor.

"You loved a serf, more than a Citizen? Yo' _pathetic_, von Shrakenberg."

Eric locked his eyes on his old enemy. "Ah gave her mah books and she was smarter than most Citizens. If she had the raht parents, she'd have been a powerful good Senator or even Archon."

He shook his head. "Sofie knew about Tyansha, but she did her best. She stood by me all these years, bore us fine children."

A smile quirked on his face.

"Karl Jr's getting married soon. To a Yankee-"

"You must be so proud."

Eric shrugged. "Not my first choice, but she's a fine young lady. Wants it done nice and proper in a church and it's her wedding, so Ah reckon she'll get it done."

He coughed again, and tasted blood on his lips. His father had died before he could see the child his rebellious son had named after him and he didn't want to die before he could see his own grandchildren.

_Will to power_, he told himself. _You can get that Yankee treatment if you ask for it. You certainly earned it.  
_  
"Now," Eric said. "Ah owe you death for Sofie, if nothing else. But yo' brought this war on the Domination. The Yankees or our serfs may have killed three-quarters o' our people, but you started it, you and your bloodthirsty nihlistic loons."

Eric drew his pistol, the weapon he carried into France, the weapon he took with him into exile.

"Gonna shoot me, von Shrakenberg?"

Eric shook his head.

"Too quick. You deserve worse."

Moving quickly despite his age, Eric crossed the space between them in a second. The first blow from the butt of his pistol struck Gaynor across the jaw, sending teeth flying.

"Ah killed yo' brother in France and mah boy Julius killed yo' sister. There any of you left?"

Gaynor shook his head. "The Yanks killed mah other sister."

Eric smiled. "Pity Ah wasn't able to get all the Gaynors, but three out of four ain't bad."

The pistol butt rose and fell over and over, coming away bloodier each time.

Before Eric had time to vent all his anger, all his pain and guilt, into his old foe's head, the door opened again.

"Mr. von Shrakenberg," the soldier said, shocked. He probably expected Eric to have shot his old foe cleanly.

Eric shrugged. "I always did talk too much," he said.

He turned to face the quivering lump of meat that was once Taylor Gaynor. Through its mangled mouth, it spat blood at Eric's feet.

Eric flipped the gun in his hand and fired a single shot through his enemy's skull, similar to how he'd killed the man's brother, long ago.

"Send someone in to clean up the mess," he told the American as he left the room.


	35. The Consequences of Playing God

**The Dragon and the Bear: The Consequences of Playing God**

By Matthew W. Quinn

As thousands of Draka and serf loyalists were tried for crimes against the peace and crimes against humanity, another major debate was brewing-what to do with the Draka's genetic creations?

Nobody particularly cared about the steakberries or other products that did not think-in fact, Alliance capital was pouring in to revitalize the prized Draka biological industry under more humanitarian leadership-but the Draka creations that had conscious minds were an issue.

First on the agenda were the Draka's post-human creations, _Homo drakensis_ and _Homo servus_. Some advocated these beings, created to replace Draka and non-Draka humanity, be exterminated as inhuman and dangerous. Many went so far as to refer to these new hominids as "it," not "he" or "she."

The weight of popular opinion was against killing off the _Homo servus_, who most people pitied as slaves deliberately built to be defenseless against their masters.

It was decided fairly quickly that all _servii_-who were extremely disproportionately children, even more so than the _drakenses_-be evacuated from the South African Federation (where Draka were being deported) and settled across the other post-Domination states and even the Alliance territory. Most were adopted out to Alliance families, particularly those who had lost children to the war; those who were adults were set up on their own with some supervision, primarily to ensure nobody took advantage of their meek, trusting natures. There were no servus on Luna or Mars, so no problems there.

The issue of the _drakenses_ was a thornier problem.

Pope John Paul II had already spoken _ex cathedra_-meaning for devout Catholics, he had spoken as God's representative on Earth-that they were not to be killed off, and the Catholic Church had been against sterilization (and other forms of birth control) for centuries. However, he was but one man, and many Catholics questioned the wisdom of this decision, particularly the ones who had suffered Draka depredations in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and the Middle East.

Plus he was very busy overseeing the reform of ex-Domination Catholic territories-although the Draka allowed Catholic clergy tied in with the Holy See, they strictly limited Catholic education, bugged confessionals, and interfered in other ways. The stress was gnawing away at his health and he could not often meet directly with his critics, meaning that opposition could not be nipped in the bud. There were mutterings of calling a Church council on the matter, or even a full-blown schism.

The Jewish community also had a lively internal debate on the matter. Many Jews spoke out against the possibility of genocide or sterilization, raising the specter of the aborted Nazi Holocaust that nevertheless claimed over one million Jewish lives. Others pointed out the Draka attacks on New York killed many Jews and how Jews in the Middle East had already been tarred as pro-Draka. Standing too strongly in favor of mercy for the _drakenses_ could provoke the same anti-Semitic feelings in the Alliance countries. Some Jewish leaders went so far as to claim the _drakenses_ were _mamzrim_ and should not be allowed to marry or reproduce.

The Alliance's military-scientific complex carried more weight with the Alliance governments than any clergyman, however influential they might have been with voters. The _drakenses_ could be useful-some scientists proposed using them as living vaccine factories due to their advanced immune system, while others thought that due to their long lives, they could be useful crewing the generation ship whose concept had been kicking around the space industry for the last decade. Others thought that they could be used as a template for human genetic engineering-not to the degree of creating a post-human species, of course, but removing genetic diseases, improving the immune system, etc.

The population was divided-pretty much everyone hated the Draka for the evils they'd done and many viewed the _drakenses_ as essentially predatory monsters, particularly after hearing accounts of them hunting "long pig." On the other hand, dealing with the "drakensis threat" involved killing or forcible sterilization of a population that was disproportionately-even after the famines-children.

As the 2003 presidential election in Russia and the 2004 presidential election in the United States drew near, the _drakensis_ issue became a big deal.

Carmen Hiero had decided not to run again due to health and stress of having served four terms-even more than Roosevelt-due to the crisis situation. Her chosen successor, Manuel Rodriguez, faced a charismatic challenger in William Kensington, who advocated a hard-line policy against the _drakenses_ and made remarks some could interpret as anti-Catholic (he said unlike his opponent, he would not face a crisis of conscience if the American public demanded the _drakensis_ threat be obliterated).

In Russia, there was a massive battle for the presidency between the Socialist Revolutionaries (who had absorbed the Mensheviks, who had suffered for their association with the Bolsheviks and were the weakest party to start with) and the Cadets. The SRs took a harder line with the _drakenses_-who they viewed as an attempt to write social class into the genetic code-while the Cadets took a more individualistic approach.

The election was a close one and ended up being decided by the Duma. The Cadets won, barely, and that was due to a lot of horse-trading-the SRs would be allowed to use the former Domination territories under Russian influence as an experimentation-ground for their various ideas.

Though the terms of surrender guaranteed individual Draka their properties, there were plenty of plantations where no heir could be found or where the heirs were in hiding or in Alliance internment camps and the Combines were state-owned entities to begin with. If the SRs wanted to indulge in collective farming (to a much greater degree than in Russia) or worker cooperatives controlling the factories, now was their chance.

In the United States, Kensington's snarking backfired on him-many Catholics leery of the Pope's attitude towards the _drakenses_ were even more leery of the specter of political anti-Catholicism returning from what people thought was its grave. Rodriguez won, barely.

The Alliance leadership met and decided that all _drakenses_ above the age of six on Earth would be implanted with tracking microchips and deported with their human kindred to the South African Federation, where the Alliance would keep a close eye on them for decades. All below the age of six, however, would be taken away from their parents and raised by suitable Alliance parents. _Drakenses_ raised according to Alliance values would serve as a suitable check on any incorrigibles over and above the military government of the South African Federation and could serve in certain capacities that older, more indoctrinated _drakenses_ could not.

And so 300,000 _drakenses_ were deported along with their millions of human kin. Of those, 180,000 had been sterilized by French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and sympathetic German or Russian troops-nobody told them they could not and it was relatively easy to hide due to the fact radiation had sterilized many people anyway.  
Meanwhile, 200,000 _drakenses_ were spread out through the Alliance countries, adopted by families selected for their resistance to pheromone manipulation and their proper belief systems.

The _drakenses_ on Luna and Mars were left to the Alliance authorities there to deal with. The Lunar authorities deported theirs to Earth, where they were subject to the policies there, while the Martian authorities-who had found them useful during the aftermath of the war there-microchipped them and otherwise left them alone.

Dealing with the ghouloons was an easier issue-though they could talk, they looked like hairy monstrous creatures and people did not empathize with them to the degree they might with servus and drakensis. All surviving ghouloons were sterilized and the old, very badly wounded, and sickly were put down. The remainder was drafted into the Alliance militaries to serve out the remainder of their lives in a military capacity. The production of Russian "war cats" and the German ghouloon-knockoffs was ended as well, with similar steps being taken. The last transgenic war-animals on Earth died out in 2025.

(The production facilities were mothballed but not dismantled. One never knows what could prove useful in the future.)


	36. Dividing the Spoils

The Dragon and the Bear: Dividing the Spoils

By Matthew W. Quinn

In addition to dealing with Draka war criminals and transgenic entities, the Alliance began the work of dividing up post-Draka Africa.

In the north, Egypt was re-established as a separate entity largely for historical/sentimental reasons. It included our world's Egypt and a sizable chunk of Sudan, with Khartoum as its southernmost bulwark and its capital at Alexandria.

Our world's Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria were consolidated into new North African Federation with its capital in Nova Cartago (our world's Bizerte). The nascent Moroccan state consolidated its borders (roughly the same as our world) under the rule of its new king.

Further south, the Sahelian Federation extended from our world's Mauretania through OTL Mali, Niger, and Chad. Its capital was at Agadez.

The borders of the West African Federation were finalized as our world's Sengal all through Cameroon, with its capital at Dakar. Our world's northern Nigeria remained independent as the revived Sokoto Caliphate. Its southern border was finalized as the Niger River.

Central Africa was organized as a new Central African Federation with its capital at the site of our world's Kinshasa. It encompassed our history's Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Uganda, and Zambia, as well as the smaller states around it and the parts of our world's Sudan not under Egyptian control. Virunga Biocontrol remained under heavy Alliance military garrison, lest someone seek to grab hold of its dangerous secrets.

The East African Federation encompassed our world's southern Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania. The rest of Somalia, our world's Djibouti, and Eritrea were incorporated along with our world's Ethiopia into a revived Ethiopian Empire.

The Southern African Federation was the trickiest of them all, since it was the destination of the 24 million or so remaining Draka and many serf loyalists. It was kept under Alliance military occupation and would remain so for 75 years, enough for the generation of Human-Draka that had fought in the war to pass away and for a generation of Draka to grow up under Alliance rule.

The SAF ultimately included our world's South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, as well as the smaller states. After some discussion, Madagascar was not included in the new state. Instead, it would resemble something like Okinawa, only on a much larger scale and a much larger mandate for interference. The armies occupying the SAF would be headquartered here, although there would be substantial Alliance bases at Windhaven (our world's Windhoek), devastated Archona and Cape Town, and other cities.

The Alliance decided that centuries of economic interdependence would be foolish to undo, especially given the precarious state of the global economy. They decided to establish an African Free Trade Agreement, as a prelude to full integration of the post-Domination states into the global free trade agreement that already included the Alliance nations.

Now that the former Domination was divided, it was time to rebuild it. Construction was a very strong industry and would remain so for a long time, spawning a need for materials to feed the construction industry. This meant demand for the copper mines of the SAF and CAF, among other products.

Alliance capital flowed into the former Domination, funding all sorts of rebuilding projects. The assets of the former Combines outside of the SAF fell into the hands of various multinational corporations who rebuilt them to Alliance standards. Large numbers of people from the Alliance came to take over management of these facilities, since the Citizen managers and foremen were gone, as were most of the upper-level serfs.

In the SAF, the Combines did not want for management personnel-in fact, with the Draka being expelled there, they had plenty. The Combines began operating as they did before, only under close Alliance supervision and with the ex-serfs being paid and whippings forbidden.


	37. The Death of Eric von Shrakenberg

The Dragon and the Bear: The Death of Eric von Shrakenberg

By Matthew W. Quinn

In 2004, Eric von Shrakenberg gave into his Nietzchean will to power over any qualms about taking up vital medical resources when there were younger people who needed it and underwent surgery for his advanced lung cancer. Recovery took some time, but he was healthy enough to dance at Karl Jr.'s 2005 wedding to one Cassandra Thompson, who his son met while serving in a logistics unit in Iceland during what was already being called the Final War.

(He's young enough and male, so they'd likely draft him, but keeping him stateside means he could be targeted by anti-Draka people and sending him into combat would make his unit an especially big target, so the Alliance military people found a compromise where he could perform some useful task without provoking any problems.)

Eric spent a fair bit of time catching up with his daughter Anna, which consisted largely of discussing their respective literary accomplishments. Eric did not think there'd be enough time left to write anything significant, but Anna encouraged him to finish up a set of memoirs-he knew so much and he doesn't have much time left.

In 2006, Eric returned to the South African Federation to inspect Oakenwald, which he still viewed as his despite the fact the Militant government transferred it to someone else within seconds of the treason trial concluding. He found the plantation in possession of a distant cousin, the Human-Draka son of one of his Syrian relatives. The traditional von Shrakenberg concern for the small-folk mean that the serfs came through the war all right and they reciprocated this by not lynching David von Shrakenberg when they had the chance and staying on as paid employees afterward. The only major changes to the plantation Eric found were that the seldom-used whipping post was gone and David was experimenting with mechanization, hiring another man from his unit to teach the former serfs.

When word got out that Eric was there, things got awkward. The Alliance military government discovered and foiled no less than three plots to assassinate Eric by Draka bitter-enders while he was there. One assassin even got onto the plantation itself and only the fact that he-an impoverished _drakensis_-had throttled down his metabolism (and thus his augmented abilities) due to a reduced diet enabled the former serfs to subdue him before he could reach Eric's room, at a cost of three of their lives.

Eric and David had a conversation and ultimately decided that it was not worth the danger to the ex-serfs and inconvenience to Eric's Alliance benefactors to keep Oakenwald in the direct paternal line to Augustus von Shrakenberg. He formally transferred ownership to David in exchange for a token payment and returned to Telluride, where he completed writing his memoirs. He was preparing to go to a book signing in a nearby town when his advanced age caught up with him. Eric von Shrakenberg died of heart failure at the age of 88.

Eric's remains were interred at Telluride, to be transferred to Oakenwald at a time when tempers had cooled and his grave was less likely to be desecrated.

Karl Jr and Cassandra's firstborn, a boy, came in 2007. As Eric had named his after his father, so Karl and Cassandra named him Eric.

So ends the tale of Eric von Shrakenberg…


	38. The Federation

The Dragon and the Bear: The Federation

By Matthew W. Quinn

While the former Domination was being parceled out, the leaders of the Alliance for Democracy began discussing the postwar future. The sheer destruction the war had unleashed meant there would be few if any wars for at least a generation or two, but the leadership knew human nature. There was always the danger of fighting over the spoils of the fallen Domination and who knew what hatreds the end of Draka rule could unleash. There had already been Sunni-Shi'ite violence in the Middle East, as well as anti-Semitism and instances of non-Jews being driven off their land in the Levantine Federation.

So it was ultimately decided that the Alliance for Democracy would be renamed the Federation of Earth (or "Terran Federation" in more common parlance) and all nations would join. There was some objection to a worldwide government by people fearful of being governed by culturally-alien strangers or being tyrannized, but most people supported something like that as a means to keep war away forever.

Still, the skeptics had their good points, and so to allay their concerns about the potential dangers of a world government, every Earth nation and off-world polity would retain its armed forces and its domestic policies-provided, of course, they conformed to the human rights guaranteed by the Russian and American Constitutions-but there would be worldwide free trade and travel, a common currency, a common world military, and a bicameral Parliament of Nations. Each nation would get a seat in the Senate, while the House of Representatives would be determined by population.

Due to the fact most of the Alliance capitals were destroyed in the war, it was ultimately decided the new federal government would sit in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Republic, in a special district set aside for its used.

The first session of the Parliament of Nations took place in 2005. The major business conducted was the continued reconstruction of Alliance territories still damaged from the war and the former Domination, as well as the latter's integration into the new world order. Only the South African Federation remained anomalous due to the ban against _drakensis_ leaving and the close Alliance supervision of its military and economy.

One particularly significant proposal came from the French delegation; rumor had it the idea came from none other than Therese LeFarge herself, the _eminence grise_ of the French nuclear program and scientific establishment. It was proposed that to further unite humanity, there ought to be some kind of grand scientific endeavor. The French proposed the construction of a starship to settle the newly-discovered world of Samothrace, an Earth-like planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. Building such a thing would unite all humanity in a common cause and provide a bolthole for the species in the event of a catastrophe destroying the human presence in the solar system-something that could have happened if the Final War went differently. The American scientist Carl Sagan and the hero of the space program and former U.S. President Robert Heinlein also supported the project, although the former wanted to wait until the pressing human needs generated by the Final War were dealt with first.

Despite the oceans of capital the space industries had generated, there was too much work to be done on Earth for the project to go ahead immediately. However, Speaker Antonin Mamedov ordered that a committee of the finest scientific minds in the human sphere be assembled to come up with plans for the effort, to be implemented later.


End file.
